




















LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 


Chap.,.i/irCopyright No... 
TZ3 


Shelf. 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




4 


THE MONEY SENSE 


A NOVEL 


, t 4 

J ’ • 

JOHN STRANGfe WINTER 


AUTHOR OP 

“bootlbs’ baby,” “the truth-tellers,” “heart and sword,” 
“a name to conjure with," etc. 

‘O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us I’ 

Timon op Athens. 


NEW YORK: 

G. W, Dillingham Co., Publishers 


TWO COPltCS received, 

Llbriry of Congrats 
Offica 0 f tkt 


APR i 1 1B00 


Raglftar af eapyrlgftf^ 



ClItJT 

iA 1^0 


Copyright, 1900, 

BY 

J, B, Lippincott Company. 


Copyright, 1900, 

BY 

G. W. Dillingham Co. 


TAe Money Sente. 




SECUNU COPV, 


t 




THE MONEY SENSE. 


CHAPTER I 

‘ What has she been doing now ?’ asked a soft 
woman’s voice in a questioning tone. 

‘ Doing !’ was the reply, ‘doing ! Oh ! always 
the same. It’s the same old tale from morning 
till night. I am utterly sick of it. Oh ! Gwyn, 
Gwyn, I’m so tired of hearing the recital of my 
own dark doings and misdeeds. Is it wicked 
that I want to be out in the world ; that I want 
to be up and doing some bigger, better, nobler 
work than setting new collars and cuffs on 
Father’s shirts — not even dress shirts, by the 
by? Has Mother no soul beyond under-linen 
and pots of jam ?’ 

‘ Mother is only the natural outcome of a very 
young marriage,’ Gwyn replied. Gwyn Torville 
was a widow, living at home for the sake of 
convenience, a woman who had lived her life, a 


2 


THE MONEY SENSE 


woman whose ideals had long ago been shattered, 
who had but too plainly seen the feet of clay 
under the garment of the idol of gold, and whose 
only remaining desire in this world was for peace 
— that peace which never comes upon a house- 
hold where mother and daughters are each striv- 
ing to go totally different ways. 

‘ It ought to have taught her something,’ 
muttered Angelique, dropping down in a heap 
on the hearthrug, and staring with great, grey, 
angry eyes at the flickering flames of the newly 
mended fire. 

‘ It has taught her how to dovetail yesterday’s 
dinner into to-day’s,’ said Gwyn mildly, ‘ and the 
inestimable value of white work.’ 

‘ Oh, yes, I know,’ cried the girl on the hearth 
with a weary sigh. ‘ I know it all. And also 
when to judiciously ruffle Father into a temper 
against one of us. Also the whole duty of 
daughters, especially the unmarried ones. One 
ought to have no secrets from Mother, no 
aspirations that Mother hasn’t had, one ought to 
ask leave to walk down the village, and to let 
Mother choose one’s frocks, and not to mind 
when she travels round in her noiseless, flat- 
footed fashion, gathering up little items of infor- 
mation from one’s letters and one’s pockets. 
Oh ! Gwyn, Gwyn, is there no way out of it ? 


THE MONEY SENSE 


3 


Must I go on for ever living this useless little 
petty, paltry life? Why should it be so different 
for girls and for boys ? Look at the difference 
that has always been made between the boys 
and us. Jack went out as soon as he left school; 
he earns his own money, and spends it as he 
will; he lives his own life, he is making his own 
way; he is beholden to nobody, independent, 
unfettered, free.’ 

‘Jack works,’ put in Gwyn quietly. 

‘ I am ready to work — longing to work — 
aching to work,’ cried Angelique passionately. 
‘ I ask you, Gwyn, did you ever consider me lazy 
when there was anything worth doing? Iff am 
going to a dance, I don’t mind working day and 
night at dressmaking ! You know that. It’s a 
small thing, I know, but it shows what I can do. 
Straws show which way the stream flows, the 
whole world knows that ! If we want a room 
changing about — who works with such a will as 
I? No one — and as for Mother, her work 
consists chiefly in making everybody feel that 
they are doing nothing, and that the whole 
burden has fallen on her. Oh ! Gwyn, I’m so 
sick of it all — I’m so sick of it.’ 

‘ I know you are,’ said Gwyn, dropping her 
needlework on her knee, and looking with beauti- 
ful, compassionate eyes at the stormy face of 


4 


THE MONEY SENSE 


her impetuous younger sister. She was full of 
compassion. She had borne the heat and burden 
of the day, had gone through this phase of 
disquietude and craving after a life not wholly 
filled with petty domestic cares, she had married 
in a desperate moment the first man who came 
her way, had found herself, to use an old adage, 

‘ out of the frying pan into the fire,’ had put up 
uncomplainingly with a bad husband, had seen 
one frail baby life after another drop silently into 
the grave, and had come back to the old home, 
to the well-known trials, thankful for the small- 
est mercy in the shape of peace. She knew so 
well where the shoe pinched ; she knew so well 
where the goads pricked ; and she knew, too, the 
uselessness of trying to kick against the one 
or to walk off the other. 

‘Why can’t they bring up boys and girls on 
an equal footing?’ Angelique said piteously. 

‘ What were we brought up for ? The marriage 
market — nothing more or less ! The boys were 
educated, properly educated, with thorough tech- 
nical educations which would fit them for the 
lives they were intended to lead ; they were put 
out, given a start, encouraged to do their best. 
But we — what was ever done for us? Just a 
cheap education, a smattering of this, a dabbling 
in that. We were meant and intended for no 


THE MONEY SENSE 


5 


career but marriage, and we were never given a 
good start even at that. Why, Mother will keep 
us stitching at shirts until Father and the boys 
are clogged up with shirts. But a frock — that is 
vanity, nothing but vanity. A dance is running 
after the world, an admirer is the abomination of 
wickedness, and a little harmless flirtation is 
“ making oneself cheap and she^ who was 
married at seventeen, she never did that. Oh ! 
Gwyn, Gwyn, I’m so tired of it all.’ 

‘ But there’s Gustave,’ put in Gwyn in a mild 
voice. 

‘ Gustave — ah, yes, Gustave is a love, a darling ; 
but there are times, Gwyn, when even Gustave 
is useful as a scourge to flay me with. If I 
really loved Gustave as a girl ought to love the 
husband of her heart, I should never want to go 
to a dance, I should never want to mix with 
people until he came back again ; if Gustave 
knew how flighty and fickle I am, he would put 
an end to himself, he would break his heart, and 
a great deal more. Oh ! I’ve heard it all so 
often ! And Gustave is away on the other side 
of the world. God only knows when he will 
come back again, or what we shall have to live 
on when he does. And yet — yet ’ 

‘ Yet you love him, my poor impetuous Angel- 
ique,’ murmured Gwyn tenderly. 


6 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ Love him ! ’ Angelique echoed, ‘ love him ! 
Oh, dear God, how much, how much ! But I 
have still the instinct of living, even though 
Gustave is on the other side of the world. I 
don’t want him to come back to find that I have 
forgotten how to smile, or how to dress myself, 
to find me with my complexion gone to paste 
because I have sat stitching more under-things 
than I can ever wear out. I don’t want to have 
forgotten how to enjoy. things — that’s not my 
idea of love. Gwyn, you know how I love 
Gustave, you know how I live for him, long for 
him, yearn and count the days to the joyful time 

when we shall meet again, but — but ’ 

‘ I think I know — go on,’ said Gwyn. 

‘ There are times,’ Angelique went on, dropping 
her voice to a whisper, ‘ there are times when 
I feel that life might not be worth living if 
Gustave is all that Mother paints him. Yes, 
she talks and talks and talks of him, his looks, 
his family, his doings, his sayings, what he likes 
and what he dislikes, how he explains this and 
how he objects to the other, and the result is a 
Gustave whom I don’t know, a Gustave whom I 
hate, a Gustave whom I could not, would not 
live with for a day ! Oh ! Let me tell you, 
even a Gustave is not an unmixed blessing. ’ 

‘ But what would you do, dear?’ Gwyn asked. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


7 


* Do ? Anything — anything — so that I could 
get away from home and earn a living for myself, 
so that I could be independent and quiet.’ 

‘And just when you were beginning to make 
headway, Gustave would come back again, and 
all your energy and effort would have been 
wasted, ’ Gwyn put in. 

‘ Not wasted. Honest work is never wasted! ’ 
Angelique cried triumphantly. 

‘ But you wouldn’t go on with any work that 
you might have taken up.’ 

‘ I don’t know. I should never be the worse 
off for having a profession at my fingers’ ends. ’ 

‘ But what could you do ?’ 

‘Anything — I wouldn’t care what! I play 
above the average, though I’ve never had les- 
sons worth calling by the name. The money,’ 
speaking bitterly, ‘was always wanted for the 
boys. I might go to Berlin and study under 

Madame Schumann for six months, and ’ 

‘It would cost a fortune,’ said Gwyn, half 
scared, married woman and widow as she was, 
by her sister’s daring and enterprise. 

‘A fortune I Pooh! Next to nothing. You live 
in a pension for about a pound a week. The 
lessons would be the greatest expense. ’ 

‘ And when you had done with her — I mean at 
the end of the six months?’ 


8 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ I should be independent. There is always 
room for a good pianist, always. I should go to 
London, take rooms — you could live with me and 
share expenses if you liked — and get engage- 
ments. I should do well at it. ’ 

‘ And if you got no engagements ? I don’t 
believe you would play well enough even if you 
went to Madame Schumann for six months. 
Supposing t hatyou found engagements impos- 
sible, what then ?’ 

‘ Then — why, I should take up something else. 
There’s the stage.’ 

‘ I don’t believe Gustave would like that,’ said 
Gwyn with decision. 

‘ I know he would not. That was why I did 
not put it first. I would try everything else 
before I went in for that, just because of Gus- 
tave. I might take up art. Women make lots 
of money at art work nowadays — all those 
umbrella stands and plaques and things. I 
should enter at South Kensington and work for 
shops, and study hard for the Academy in be- 
tween. I could do black and white and Christ- 
mas cards.’ 

‘ But why could you not work at home ?’ Gwyn 
asked. ‘ You would live for nothing. Mother 
would never expect you to pay her for that, no 
matter how much you might make. And then 


THE MONEY SENSE 


9 


you would have all the money to put by for the 
time when Gustave comes home. ’ 

But Angelique shook her head. ‘No, no, it 
couldn’t be done that way. You must be on the 
spot, you must be in the swim, or you are out of 
it altogether. Besides, I should never get the 
time to do it in. Mother would always call it a 
waste ! She would come buzzing round teaching 
me how to do it all, and irritating me till I didn’t 
know black from white, or green from yellow. 
I tell you, I want to get out of it all — the ever- 
lasting fuss and worry and nagging, the morning, 
noon, and night of it all, and the unending cata- 
logue of an impossibleand preposterous Gustave’s 
virtues. I want to be free.’ 

‘I understand,’ murmured Gwyn softly. ‘I 
used to feel just like that once. Only — you must 
not forget, Angel, that to be free sometimes, oh, 
often means to be unsheltered ; independence 
may mean having no one to turn to ; earning a 
living doesn’t always mean paying for pocket- 
money things, but for the stern necessities of a 
bare existence. Don’t do anything rash. I know 
Mother is trying sometimes — oh ! how well I 
know it ! — but don’t decide in a hurry ; don’t 
burn your boats behind you.’ 

‘And you will help me to get away?’ said 
Angelique eagerly. 


lO 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘I’ll do my best.’ 

‘ They will never let me go without you — 
you’ll go if need be ?’ 

‘Yes, I will go if need be,’ said Gwyn Torville 
steadily, a sudden blaze of light in her eyes. 
‘Oh, Angel,’ she said, ‘don’t you think / some- 
times feel it all still ? I am ten years older than 
you, and life has been pretty much of a failure 
for me, but I have longings, aspirations, ambi- 
tions. I yearn to be free sometimes.’ 

‘ We will go together !’ cried Angelique, catch- 
ing hold of her sister’s hand and holding it close. 

For a moment Gwyn caught the girl to her 
and kept her fast in her arms. ‘ Dear Angel, 
you have a Gustave, and he loves you. I think 
sometimes you forget it. ’ 

‘ No, no ; dear Gustave — I worship him,’ cried 
Angelique, who w^as thinking of her great 
schemes for asserting her independence. 

‘ There is the bell for tea. Let us go down,’ 
said Gwyn, going back soberly to everyday life. 

The two went down the handsome stairs 
together. They were wide and shallow stairs, 
leading down into a spacious entrance hall, which 
was cold and cheerless, not an entrance hall of 
to-day with gay rugs and a wealth of bright 
colours, but sparsely furnished and chill both in 
atmosphere and aspect. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


II 


‘Think what we might make of it,’ said 
Angelique, as they went down; ‘but, no, it would 
be a sin to cover up the marble pavement, and 
a crime to hang pictures and rubbish on the 
pahited walls. And a fire would be reckless 
extravagance, and a tablecloth would look ridi- 
culous. Ah! Letters!’ she exclaimed, in a 
totally different tone. 

She was down the remaining steps in half a 
minute and across the hall to the polished table 
under the window. Upon its shining and im- 
maculate surface reposed several letters, among 
them one with a New Zealand postmark. Before 
Gwyn had reached the door of the dining-room, 
Angelique had torn the cover and was eagerly 
devouring the contents. As the elder sister 
laid her hand on the door an exclamation 
made her look back. ‘ Angel — what is it ?’ she 
asked ; then turned and went nearer to her. 
‘ Gustave is coming home ? He has had good 
luck ?’ 

Angelique put out her hand as if to ask for 
silence, devouring the letter with wide-open 
eyes the while. Then she folded the sheet and 
put it back in the envelope. 

‘ I may as well tell you,’ she said. ‘ Gustave is 
never coming back. Gustave has had luck, but 
it’s not the kind of luck that he can ask me to 


12 


THE MONEY SENSE 


share. He is going to be married to somebody 
else — she’s rich.’ 

‘ My poor Angel,’ Gwyn began, but Angelique 
turned upon her with flaming eyes. 

‘For God’s sake, don’t pity me!’ she cried, in 
a fierce undertone — ‘ anything but that. But if 
you love me, help me to get away. If it is 
ragged over and ragged over, I shall go mad. 
Don’t ask me any questions. I’ll show you the 
letter, and you will know as much and as little 
as I know. You can tell them to-morrow — only, 
for God’s sake, no pity.’ 


CHAPTER II 


I CAN only describe the life which was lived by 
Angelique Dodsworth, after she received Gustave 
Maynard’s letter of renunciation, as a martyrdom. 

The contents of the letter could not long be 
kept from her Mother’s knowledge — that was a 
matter of course. Mrs. Dodsworth was a good 
woman of a peculiar aggravating type. That 
is to say, she was a woman of unblemished virtue. 
Possibly she had never had any temptation to be 
other than virtuous, for she had married while 
very young, and her husband was an easy-going 
kind of man, who was capable upon occasion of 
feeling and showing the most furious jealousy. 
And, like many other easy-going persons, he was 
also capable of the most outrageous transports 
of rage. There were times when he could be 
thrown into perfect avalanches of passion; and 
in course of time his wife had learned so accu- 
rately to gauge his mental conditions, that she 
could by a word or two effectually put him out 
of conceit with any one. This little trait was 

13 


14 


THE MONEY SENSE 


one which she found most useful in her dealings 
with her children, and it was also one of which 
she never scrupled to make the fullest use in the 
furtherance of her own ends. 

One of the most curious sides of Mrs. Dods- 
worth’s remarkable and exceedingly complex 
character was that she invariably overestimated 
the value and importance of even the most 
trifling incident which concerned herself. She 
always spoke of herself as a good woman sorely 
tried ! I have said that she was virtuous — no 
doubt ever was or ever had been raised on that 
point — but in her virtue had to stand sponsor for 
a great deal. Of the minor virtues, such as are 
instinct with many women, she knew absolutely 
nothing. She did not understand that it is a 
greater kindness to leave an open wound un- 
probed than it is to offer bread to the hungry. 
She loved to talk things over, to look at them 
from this point and from that, to explain them 
as they appeared to be from her particular stand- 
point; and having wearied her hearer into a jaded 
acquiescence, it was her joy to then turn right 
about, march round until she reached an exactly 
opposite coign of vantage, when she would 
mentally plant herself down and explain the 
entire situation to her own extreme satisfaction, 
so as to make the new stand-point fit joint by 


THE MONEY SENSE 


15 


joint with the old one. It was an exhaustive 
process for the audience ; and in such a case as 
that of Angelique’s broken love affair, it was one 
fraught with living agony to the one who was 
obliged to listen. For there was no getting 
away from Mrs. Dodsworth. As easily might 
the wedding guest have got away from the 
Ancient Mariner as a luckless fly get out of the 
web of Mrs. Dodsworth’s complicated converse. 

‘ Will it never stop ?’ Angelique cried des- 
perately to Gwyn one morning when Gustave 
Maynard’s letter was a three-days’ -old wonder. 
‘ Is she going on for ever ?’ 

‘ My poor Angel!’ murmured Gwyn pityingly. 

‘ She wonders how he could have the effrontery 
to treat a daughter of hers like that!’ Angelique 
went on derisively. ‘ It is a far more weighty 
matter to Mother that he has dared to treat her 
daughter ill than that he has broken my heart. 
What’s the good of ragging it over and over? 
Cannot she see that it hurts, hurts hereV laying 
her hand on her heart and looking at Gwyn with 
great, grey, wide-open eyes. 

‘ My dear, my dear, Mother doesn’t mean to 
be unkind. She could not,’ Gwyn cried. ‘If only 
she would not talk, or would talk to me of it ! ’ 

‘ If we could only get away,’ Angelique cried. 
‘Oh! Gwyn, cannot you help me to get away? 


i6 THE MONEY SENSE 

Cannot you tell Father how miserable I am, here 
where every one knows us, knows all about 
Gustave, knows that he has — has jilted me ? 
He surely will understand how Mother worries 
me, how she churns it over and over till I could 
shriek aloud for sheer nervousness lest she is 
going to begin it all over again ? Daddy is good- 
natured and kind — surely he will give me a 
chance of getting away from any more torture.’ 

‘ I’ll ask him. I’ll take the very first chance,’ 
said Gwyn soothingly. ‘ But I must find a chance 
first. I can’t rush it on him. Hush — is that 
Mother coming back again ?’ 

‘Yes — yes — I’m off. I can’t hear it all over 
again to-day,’ Angelique cried. 

She smiled at Gwyn and bolted out of the 
room by a door ojjposite to the one which Mrs. 
Dodsworth was even then approaching. Gwyn 
thought of the smile with a shudder. What is 
there so sad as a smile which is only tears frozen 
hard? 

‘Where is Angelique?’ asked the mother as 
she came into the room. 

‘Angelique? She was here a few minutes 
ago,’ Gwyn replied. ‘ I don’t know where she 
went.’ 

Mrs. Dodsworth turned back again and care- 
fully closed the door. Then she settled herself 


THE MONEY SENSE 


17 


down by the fire just opposite to Gwyn, arranged 
her spectacles to a nicety at the right angle of her 
nose, and spread out a voluminous garment of 
white calico which was in process of fashioning. 

‘The white hen has laid an egg to-day,’ she 
remarked casually; ‘the little white hen with 
the feathery legs.’ 

‘You don’t say so,’ returned Gwyn, feigning 
an interest which she was very far from feeling. 

‘ Yes, I did not expect her to lay much before 
Christmas,’ said Mrs. Dods worth cheerfully. 

‘I’m sure it is very considerate of her,’ said 
Gwyn. 

‘ Yes — yes — it is. Ah! if everything else was 
as smooth and easy as the henyard, we should 
do very well,’ Mrs. Dodsworth remarked, her 
tone changing. ‘ Do you know, Gwyn, I cannot 
make out this affair at all. I don’t seem to be 
able to get at the rights of it.’ 

‘Oh! dear Mother, ’ cried Gwyn impatiently, 

‘ the rights are easy enough to get at. He has 
no money, and Angelique has no money, and he 
has thrown her over for somebody who has — 
that’s all.’ 

‘ But for my daughter to be thrown over — it’s 
such an insult to me.’ 

‘I don’t suppose he thought of that,’ put in 
Gwyn sarcastically. 


2 


i8 THE MONEY SENSE 

‘ But / think of it. I’m sure we ought not to 
let it pass. Father ought to take it up.’ 

‘ Taking it up won’t unmarry him or make 
him a true lover to Angelique,’ said Gwyn, with 
quick decision. ‘ You could not possibly get 
Father to take him to task. He has chosen to 
throw Angelique over ; it is not for any of us to 
make him think that she or we regret him.’ 

‘ But does Angelique regret him ? She won’t 
talk about him, not even to me. Just Yes and 
No, and that’s all the answer I get. Most girls 
would like to confide in their mother, to talk it 
over, to decide what to do. But everything is 
kept from me — it is always the same.’ 

‘ Dear Mother,’ cried Gwyn, ‘ it is not so. The 
child is knocked over altogether by this blow. 
It is a blow — she loved him. It was quite unex- 
pected. Give her time to breathe again. She 
wants to talk to no one, to confide in no one. 
She wants to be left alone, to get over it, as an 
animal gets into covert and gets over its wounds 
— or — dies.’ 

‘Angelique won’t die,’ said Mrs. Dodsworth, in 
no wise moved by the entreaty and tenderness in 
Gwyn’s voice. ‘ In a few weeks’ time she will 
be gadding about as jauntily as ever. ’ 

‘ She would like to go away,’ began Gwyn. 

‘Away — where ?’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


19 


‘ To London. She would like to do something 
— to work — to try to forget. It is so difficult to 
forget in a place where everybody knows.’ 

‘ It is difficult to forget one’s troubles anywhere, 
as I know from experience,’ said Mrs. Dods worth 
with a prodigious sigh. ‘As for work, bless me I 
there’s work enough here and to spare. I got 
all that linen for new sheets and pillow slips. It 
must all be drawn and feather-stitched ’ 

‘Not work of that kind,’ cried Gwyn, in 
despair of ever getting the subject broached. 

‘What kind of work then?’ demanded her 
mother. 

‘Well — more serious work. Art work, or 
black and white, drawing black-and-white 
pictures for illustrations, you know. Or she 
might take up music or go on the stage.’ 

Mrs. Torville uttered the last four words in a 
voice scarcely above a whisper ; but Mrs. Dods- 
worth, though at times she was most conveniently 
deaf, heard them distinctly. 

‘On the stage! a daughter of mine go on the 
stage!’ she cried, in loud, astonished accents. 
‘Why, Gwyn, what nonsense have you been 
putting in Angelique’s head?’ 

* I have not put the idea in her head. Mother,’ 
said Gwyn quietly. ‘Angelique is young and 
ambitious. All young girls, who have a soul 


20 


THE MONEY SENSE 


above waiting till some man condescends to 
marry them, have ambitions, and long to be of 
use in the world.’ 

‘ Of use ! I never found that Angelique longed 
to be of use,’ Mrs. Dodsworth cried. ‘ When did 
that craze come in, pray ?’ 

‘ She has always longed to go out into the 
world — to work — to cut out a career for herself,’ 
answered Gwyn steadily. 

‘ To get away from the restraints of home, you 
mean,’ returned the mother drily. ‘I know what 
that means. Why should my daughter not be 
satisfied to stay at home in comfort like other 
girls ? I always was. ’ 

‘You married at seventeen. Mother,’ said 
Gwyn, smiling ; ‘Angelique is four-and-twenty.’ 

‘ Well, and whose fault is that? Not mine. I 
knew what it would be when she was first 
engaged to Gustave Maynard. I said to her 
months before that even — “Angelique, you will 
go through the wood and through the wood, and 
you’ll pick up a crooked stick at last.” ’ 

‘And, poor child, she hasn’t picked up a stick 
of any kind,’ said Gwyn pitifully. ‘ Still, I do 
think. Mother, if you could make up your mind 
to let her try her wings for a time, say for six 
months or a year, you would not regret it. I 
would go with her, and we would share out 


.THE MONEY SENSE 


21 


together. You would be satisfied that she was 
being taken care of. If she succeeded, you would 
be proud, and she would be happy and satisfied ; 
and if she failed, why, she would be glad to 
come home to the old nest, and she would 
appreciate it more than she had ever done 
before.’ 

But what chance will she have up there of 
marrying and settling ?’ Mrs. Dodsworth asked 
anxiously. 

‘ Dear Mother,’ said Gwyn, ‘ Madge’s marriage 
and mine have not been so successful that you 
need regret that chance for her. She met 
Gustave here. I think she might do better in a 
new circle.’ 

‘I don’t know but that you are right,’ Mrs. 
Dodsworth admitted. 

Gwyn knew that the day was won, and pressed 
the question no further. She carried the news 
of her triumph to Angelique, whom she found in 
her bedroom busily engaged in turning out all 
Gustave’s presents and letters. 

‘ I shall not want these now,’ she said, turning 
her sad eyes upon Gwyn. ‘ There’s nothing of 
any value excepting my ring. I shall send that 
back by post ; all the rest I shall put in the fire. 
I want to take nothing of the old life into the 
new. ’ 


22 THE MONEY SENSE 

‘Don’t burn your boats too completely,’ said 
Gwyn. 

‘ Why not ? I can never go back now ; there’s 
no room for me in the past. I must get on — get 
on — and forget that there were ever boats to 
cross in.’ 

‘I think I have paved the way,’ Gwyn said, 
sitting down on the little stool which stood 
beside the fender. 

‘Not really? With Daddy?’ 

‘ No — with Mother. I felt it was best to enlist 
her if I could. She has such power over Father, 
and can make such a difference to everything. 
I think it is all right.’ 

‘And she did not take fright at the stage?’ 
Angelique exclaimed. 

‘ Well, she did, rather. But I am sure she sees 
how hard it would be for you to stay here where 
everybody knows or will know all about it. And 
I suggested to her that if you had a fair try at 
hard work for a year or even six months, and 
failed — that you would be willing to come home 
again.’ 

‘ Gwyn, you’re a wonderful woman,’ Angelique 
cried, her eyes beginning to blaze. ‘ I shall owe 
you a good turn for this all my life as long as I 
live. Fail ! Fail, did you say ? Oh! only let me 
once get a chance, and you see whether I fail. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


23 

Fail ! — I tell you there is no such word in my 
vocabulary. ’ 

‘ But you must go softly over the stones,’ said 
Gwyn, smiling in her tender way. 

‘Yes, yes, old Safety-Valve, I’ll keep that in 
mind,’ Angelique cried. 

She was almost gay, almost her old enthusiastic 
self. She discussed the prospect from this side 
and that, laid plans, arranged all manner of little 
details in a way which carried even Gwyn along 
with her. Gwyn had sucked the orange of life, 
and had found very early that it was a bitter one, 
and none too good at that. Yet even she was 
not proof against the fascination of the vivid 
pictures of time to come that slipped from 
Angelique’s persuasive and eloquent tongue. 
She thought that the prospect of change and rest 
from the tediousness of home had already dulled 
the sharp edge of the bitter humiliation which 
had just fallen upon her, and she was glad. 

But it was not so. Left alone by the fire, 
Angelique sank down in a despondent heap in 
front of the warm glow. ‘If I fail,’ she mut- 
tered. ‘Yes, but I won’t fail. I can’t fail. I 
dare not fail with a prospect of Beech Croft for 
ever before me. Yet — if I do, what then ? I 
will never come home again — I would infinitely 
rather — die / * . 


CHAPTER III 

If I were to tell in detail the whole story of how 
Angelique Dodsworth, aided by Gwyn, was able 
to dazzle her mother with the advantages of 
letting her leave Beech Croft that she might try 
her wings in a bolder flight than she had as yet 
ever taken, I should exhaust the patience of my 
reader long before I got to the story which I 
have to tell ; indeed, it is more than doubtful if I 
should ever get to the legitimate part of my 
story at all. Suffice it to say that it was a 
process, a most exhaustive one. Mrs. Dodsworth 
viewed the project from this point and that, 
retailed at length her own personal feelings at 
the discovery that a child of hers was desirous 
of going on the stage, and finally expressed a 
somewhat roundabout opinion that the advan- 
tages would be all on one side — that of the stage, 
of course — and that Angelique had only to let it 
be known that she was available to immediately 
find every manager in London at her feet. 

‘ I believe,’ said Angelique in a fit of im- 
24 


THE MONEY SENSE 


25 


patience to Gwyn, ‘ that Mother has a fond idea 
that being a daughter of hers is a more than 
‘sufficient training for me to be able to jump to 
the top of the tree in one bound. She doesn’t 
seem to realise that I have to be taught all sorts 
of things before I shall be worth my salt. Daddy 
is much more reasonable ; he accepts it at once 
as a proper thing that I shall have to study 
elocution, stage-dancing, and deportment. I 
believe Mother thinks if she would only con- 
descend to do it, that she could go straight on to 
the boards herself, and cut everybody out with- 
out the smallest trouble. But, really, one has to 
be taught how to walk across the stage. ’ 

‘ I suppose you have,’ said Gwyn. She had 
never been cursed with a hankering after the 
footlights. ‘ I should have thought, though, that 
it would have been the surest way for you to 
take quite a small part and work up gradually.’ 

‘ Not a bit of it,’ returned Angelique decidedly, 
‘ that’s the old-fashioned idea, and has exploded 
long ago. Nowadays nobody drudges. You go 
to a first-class trainer and get taught everything 
in three months. Everything else depends on 
luck and your own power of pushing yourself 
forward at the right moment. I got to know a 
lot about that the last time Mother and I stayed 
at Derrick’s.’ 


26 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Gwyn did not dispute the fact ; and as she 
knew little or nothing about stage-land, she 
took Angelique’s remarks very much for granted. 
It also sounded plausible and reasonable enough, 
and Angelique seemed to take a common-sense, 
everyday view of the situation, and in no way 
to be dazzled by the ease and glory of the life 
which lay before her. 

Finally, Mr. Dodsworth agreed to allow four 
pounds a week for not longer than a year, this to 
be controlled by Gwyn, and together with her 
little income (she had something over a hundred 
and sixty pounds a year of her own) was to cover 
all their expenses. 

‘ It won’t give you anything to play with,’ he 
said, when Angelique had enthusiastically ex- 
pressed her thanks to him for what she called his 
great generosity. ‘ No, you needn’t thank me 
any more at all. I don’t like your scheme ; I hate 
the idea of your going play-acting; I’d greatly 
prefer you to stay at home quietly, and be satisfied 
with your natural condition, until you got a home 
of your own, like all the women of our family 
that have gone before you. But you’ve had a 
knock-down blow, and your mother and I both 
would rather sacrifice our own inclinations than 
keep you here fretting your head out — so you 
shall go.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


27 


* Dear Dad,’ murmured Angelique. 

‘ Yes, yes, I’ve always tried to be that to you, 
and your mother, too. Never forget she’s been 
a good mother to you all, and put herself about 
times and times when some mothers would have 
let things slide anyhow. And keep it in mind, 
little lass, that the two old people at home will 
break their hearts if anything comes amiss to 
you. Keep in mind that you’ve left the old nest 
against their natural wishes, and try to make 
them proud of you and glad that they gave way 
to your ambitions. ’ 

‘ I will. Daddy, I will ,’ cried Angelique. ‘And, 
Daddy, you’ll believe one thing — I’m not going 
away for fun and to frivol , I’m going to work, first 
to show you and Mother that there is something 
in me, and then — to show some one else.’ She 
uttered the last word in a very low tone, almost 
under her breath indeed ; but John Dodsworth, 
though in an ordinary way a man of anything but 
acute perceptions in small matters pertaining to 
women, heard them, and nodded his head in sign 
of understanding. 

‘Ah ! well, my little girl, times come and 
times go, and may be some day you’ll look back 
to this bitter day and be able to say it was all 
for the best. God grant it, anyway.’ 

‘ Father seems so plain and rough and common- 


28 


THE MONEY SENSE 


place/ said Angelique later on to her sister, ‘ but 
he understands better than Mother, for all she 
professes to be so sensitive and so tender- 
hearted. knows without telling just what it 
is to me to be here where every one knows. Oh! 
Gwyn, Gwyn, what do you think Mrs. Williams 
said to me yesterday ?’ 

‘ How should I know?’ returned Gwyn. ‘ She’s 
an inveterate gossip and a thoroughly coarse- 
minded woman, so it was something horrid, I’m 
sure.’ 

‘Well, she asked me if it was true that my 
engagement to Gustave was over — “off,” she 
called it. And I, of course, could not possibly 
deny it, could not shut her up or anything, so I 
just had to say Yes, and try to look as uncon- 
cerned as I could. - And then she said in her 
horrid, croaking way: “Ah! / never thought it 
would come to anything. You can always tell 
whether a man is serious or not. By the way, did 
he send you a portrait of the lady he jilted you 
for, my dear ?” ’ 

‘Angel! ’ cried Gwyn in a pitiful voice. 

‘ Yes ; she said just that, and in just that way,’ 
said Angelique, looking at Gwyn with her wide- 
open, tearless eyes. ‘ For a moment I felt per- 
fectly stunned, and then I pulled myself together 
a bit, and I looked at her straight. “ I’ve heard 


THE MONEY SENSE 


29 


of some fairly nasty things that you have said 
before, Mrs. Williams,” I said, “but I do think 
this time you’ve outshone yourself.” ’ 

‘And she said ?’ asked Gwyn. 

‘ Said — what do you expect she would say ? 
That she hoped she hadn’t hurt my feelings?’ 
said Angelique bitterly. ‘ Surely you know Mrs. 
Williams better than that ! No, she gave a sniff, 
and said that she had no doubt I felt my position 
keenly, and that she hoped all my friends would 
be like her, and make allowances for me. And 
then Mother came peering in, and I left them 
hard at it, so by this time all the parish knows 
everything that there is to know.’ 

‘ You will soon be out of it, darling,’ said Gwyn 
soothingly. 

‘ Oh ! yes, yes, and if ever I come home to 
Beech Croft for more than a short visit, may 
I ’ 

‘ Don’t, don’t say what you would do. You are 
going out into the world to make a- great success,’ 
Gwyn cried. 

‘And if I don’t make it, I hope I may die,’ 
Angelique rejoined passionately. 

Three days later the sisters turned their backs 
upon Beech Croft, as Angelique audibly hoped, 
for ever. She was quite radiant with enthusiasm 
and expectation as the train slid out of the little 


30 


THE MONEY SENSE 


country station. ‘Good-bye, good-bye, stupid, 
dull old place. We have seen the last of you 
as anything more than an episode. Good-bye, 
good-bye,’ 

She leaned out of the window to get a last look 
at the father and mother still standing on the 
platform ; and Mrs. Dodsworth, who was a woman 
easily moved to tears when she thought them 
suitable to the occasion, clutched hard hold of 
her husband’s arm, and her large, mindless face 
underwent an envious series of contortions and 
changings of colour. 

‘John,’ she said in an odd, choking voice, ‘ my 
mind misgives me when I think of a child of 
mine going on the stage.’ 

‘ Nay, Mother,’ returned John Dodsworth, still 
waving heartily after the departing train, ‘it’s 
too late to think of that now ; you should have 
spoken earlier. Come now, don’t keep Jinny 
waiting.’ 

Angelique, still at the carriage window, could 
just see the comfortable family waggonette and 
the very matronly-looking Jinny standing at the 
station entrance. ‘ Good-bye to the old tub and 
the cow-like Jinny,’ she cried gaily, as she drew 
in her head and subsided on to the seat ; ‘ we 
are going into the world of wonder and hansom 
cabs.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


31 


‘ We are going into the world of buses and 
shanks’ s nags,’ corrected Gwyn, though it went 
to her heart to in any way daunt the brilliant 
hopes and radiant spirits of the breathless girl 
opposite to her. Then she gave voice to a thought 
which suddenly arose in her mind. ‘ You are very 
pretty, Angel,’ she said, her eyes lingering over 
the fresh beauties of her sister’s face. ‘ I like 
you with your soft hair all blown about and your 
great eyes shining like stars. I wonder if you 
will look as well on the stage as you do off?’ 

‘ I ought to look better. I shall have all the 
advantages of make-up,’ answered Angelique. 

‘ But you lose your own wild-rose complexion,’ 
said Gwyn. 

‘ No, no, it will come out all the fresher for its 
temporary eclipses, ’ said Angelique wisely. ‘ Oh ! 
I think I ought to look all right — my figure is 
good and my waist so small. And I’ve good 
eyebrows and good hair, too. And then my legs 
are a perfect dream.’ 

Gwyn feltherself growing a little faint. ‘ Your 
legs ’ Angel, she cried. ‘ But what have your 
legs to do with it ?’ 

Angelique laughed. ‘ Why, my dear, I could 
not go on the stage without legs, could I ? And 
if they were knock-kneed or bandy, I should be 
almost as badly off. ’ 


32 


THE MONEY SENSE 


But she felt in her heart that she had made a 
slip, and that she would guard her tongue so as not 
to shock Gwyn before they were safely launched 
on their new life. So instead of chatting idly any 
more, she opened the book she had brought to 
read on the way, and began to study it diligently. 
It was a little brown book with a shabby cover. 
Mrs. Torville smiled as she recognised it, for it 
had been but seldom out of Angelique’s hands 
during the past few weeks. It was an acting 
edition of As You Like and very soon the girl 
was away in the ‘Forest of Arden,’ no longer 
Angelique, but Shakespeare’s Rosalind. 

‘ She is very handsome, intensely attractive,’ 
Gwyn’s thoughts ran. ‘ If only she does not get 
tired, if only she can get through the drudgery, 
she will do.’ 

As soon as they got to London they went 
straight to Derrick’s, a private hotel in Blooms- 
bury, where various members of the Dodsworth 
family had from time to time sojourned for many*^ 
years past. They had quite a free hand to make 
the best arrangements they could. 

‘ I should be inclined to say stay at Derrick’s 
if they are willing to give you good terms, ’ Mrs. 
Dodsworth had said, as a final instruction to 
Gwyn. ‘ We know the Derricks, and they know 
us, and they are extremely respectable people. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


33 


I am quite sure that the mere fact of your being 
my daughters will be enough to make them show 
you every attention. ’ 

‘I will do the best I can, Mother,’ said Gwyn; 
‘ of course, we cannot have a private sitting- 
room at Derrick’s, and Angelique may find that 
an absolute necessity when she is studying hard.’ 

‘ Well, you will see, only don’t give way too 
completely to Angelique’ s whims and caprices. 
You know what she is, Gwyn. The firmer hand 
you keep over Angelique, the better for her.’ 

During the few weeks prior to the departure 
of the sisters from Beech Croft, Gwyn was made 
the recipient of many similar pieces of advice. 
Now all these sayings Gwyn Torville kept, like 
Mary, in her heart. She knew quite well that if 
she disclosed them to Angelique, the girl would 
go dead against them even were they such as the 
poorest intellect would see the wisdom of. So 
Gwyn kept them to herself, and only brought 
them forth as chance and occasion needed. 

As soon as they reached their bedroom at 
Derrick’s, Angelique looked round in a dissatis- 
fied kind of way. ‘I don’t think I ever saw 
Derrick’s look so dingy,’ she remarked rather 
disdainfully. ‘I don’t believe this room has been 
cleaned since the last person or persons left it. 
Ugh ! It smells. ’ 


3 


34 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Mrs. Torville sat down on the nearest chair 
with a feeling akin to despair! Of a surety, 
Angelique was soon finding the crumpled rose- 
leaf in her new existence. 

‘ Don’t you think any Eondon room would seem 
the same to us just fresh from the country with- 
out lavender-scented sheets and our fresh dimity 
hangings ?’ 

‘ Yes, Gwyn, yes, I’m an unreasonable beast,’ 
cried Angelique in vigorous self-denunciation. 

‘ Forgive me, I’m not myself yet, and perhaps I 
am just a little appalled by the great wide world 
that lies before me. I’ve been so long thinking 
of the future, the real future, as a sheltered 
haven that — that — oh, Gwyn, I haven’t got over 
it yet.’ 

She dropped down like a shot bird at Mrs. 
Torville’s feet and hid her face against her knee. 
Gwyn laid her hand upon the girl’s head, smooth- 
ing gently the wealth of radiant hair, in whose 
brown the sunbeams seemed to have lost them- 
selves. ‘ My Angel, I know — I know. But, after 
all, it is a bright future that lies before us, a 
future with endless possibilities to be won if we 
fight hard enough. You must be brave, Angel, 
and not faint upon the very threshold. You have 
to conquer — or ’ 

‘Or die,’ ended Angelique, in a tone of deter- 


THE MONEY SENSE 


35 

mination, and with a gesture of indomitable 
pride. 

She raised herself from her lowly position and 
knelt at her sister’s feet with the smile on her 
face again. 

‘ Old Safety-Valve, ’ she said softly, ‘ I am afraid 
you will have but a poor sort of time until I am 
fairly launched, ay, and afterwards for that 
matter. What should I do without you ? What 
would be the end of me ? How should I ever get 
through the ruck ? Gwyn, Gwyn, you say your 
prayers still ; I’ve never said mine since I got 
that last letter. I couldn’t — it would be a 
mockery, a sacrilege — but you pray still. Pray 
for me that I may find forgetfulness in my work.’ 

And then she set her sister’s hands free and 
went to the window, where she stood looking out 
over the soiled white muslin blind across the 
dingy London square. A bit of poetry came to 
Gwyn’s mind as she watched her — 

‘ God pity them both ! and pity us all, 

Who vainly the dreams of youth recall. 

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, 

The saddest are these ; “It might have been!” ’ 


CHAPTER IV 

The ladies and gentlemen who made their home 
either permanently or temporarily at Derrick’s 
were more interested in Angelique Dodsworth 
than in all the rest of the household put together. 
The ladies called her a charming young creature, 
and the men said she was ripping ! In less than 
a week everybody knew almost her whole story, 
everything, indeed, excepting that part which 
concerned Gustave Maynard, and that other part 
which concerned Angelique’ s sentiments as to 
the curious complexity of her mother’s character. 
On those two subjects she was discretion itself, 
for she was not like her mother in respect of not 
being able to keep certain things to herself. The 
mother and daughter were strangely like, and 
equally strangely unlike each other. Under any 
circumstances Mrs. Dodsworth was bound to talk. 
The topic was immaterial ; it was generally the 
latest interest which had chanced to come into 
her life. For instance, the subject of Angelique’s 
broken engagement served day and night as a 
36 


THE MONEY SENSE 


37 


subject of the most elaborate and detailed con- 
versation and conjecture, such as might have 
been justly compared to a silver-point for minute- 
ness of detail. But no sooner did some new inter- 
est arise, or quite possibly an interest as old as 
the hills, but coming newly into her life, than her 
mind seemed to be switched off the old topic and 
turned with full force on to the new one. The 
new interest in this case was the fact that her 
second daughter, Madge, had come home unex- 
pectedly with two of her children — had come 
with looks so wan and white that her mother 
more than suspected, though Madge would rather 
have died than have owned to it, that the absent 
husband, Frank Morrison, was in the habit not 
only of neglecting, but of systematically ill- 
treating her. 

Now Angelique was like and yet unlike this. 
Talk she must, and talk of the latest interest 
which had happened to come into her life, but 
she had not the fatal habit which she was 
accustomed to speak of as ‘ ragging.’ She was 
enthusiastic, eloquent to an alarming degree, 
and possessed of an intense desire to shine in the 
eyes of all the people she met, no matter what 
their age, sex, or condition. So she quickly 
made friends with all the inmates of Derrick’s, 
and as quickly acquainted them with all her 


38 


THE MONEY SENSE 


ideas, plans and ambitions. Everybody gave 
her advice, most of it admirable, if not always 
practicable, and at first Mrs. Torville trembled 
lest slie might be inclined to follow too many 
paths to glory, only to find that they led to 
failure. But Gwyn found that there was an 
Angelique in that lissom body which was all 
unknown to her. She soon found that there was 
an Angelique who was determined to go her own 
sweet way, and no one else’s, to follow the 
dictates of her own firm will in fine indifference 
to the teachings of common sense or to the 
experience of others. 

‘ Study with Henry Merriman, ’ she heard her 
say one evening to a young man of Jewish 
appearance who happened to sit next to her at 
dinner. ‘ Oh ! no, no one goes to Henry Merri- 
man nowadays. His vogue is over long ago, his 
style is so old fashioned, so tiresome. I am 
going to Ee Brun for dramatic teaching, to St. 
Aubert for stage dancing, and to Aubi^re for 
singing. They are the very best people living. 
No one has a chance with any one else.’ 

‘ And when you are through ?’ said the Jewish 
young man, who was very much interested in 
Angelique. 

‘ When I am through ! Oh ! then my position 
is assured. You see, none of these people will 


THE MONEY SENSE 


39 


take a pupil unless she is worth teaching. The 
very fact of my being a pupil of these three will 
be enough for any manager in London.’ 

‘ I think I have heard of a pupil of Le Brun’s 
who died in a garret,’ remarked Israel Isaacs 
mildly. 

‘ Ah ! I daresay. Possibly she was too good — 
too much of the romantic school,’ said Angelique 
lightly. ‘ That never pays. The day has gone 
by for everything but domestic comedy. The 
romantic school is at a discount.’ 

‘ And about the old comedies ?’ Israel Isaacs 
asked. 

‘ What, the costume plays — “ School for Scan- 
dal,” “Stoops to Conquer,” and all those ? Oh, 
they are all as antiquated and out of date as you 
please. Of course, every actress has to begin 
by playing “ Maria,” and hopes some day to play 
Lady Teazle. But that is not my ambition. No, 
a good part in a modern play, and the credit of 
creating a character — that’s the kind of thing I 
am looking forward to.’ 

‘ It will surely come, ’ said Israel Isaacs, with a 
flash of his orient eyes. 

‘I only want my chance,’ said Angelique 
confidently. 

‘And you will get that.’ 

‘Oh yes. I could have that at any time, but 


40 


THE MONEY SENSE 


I don’t want to rusli things. You see, there is 
such a lot of interest to be worked up before a 
girl has the smallest chance of success. One 
must get well talked about, paragraphed, noticed. 
I am working at that already. Only yesterday 
Le Brun took an opportunity of introducing me 
to the editor of the Evening Twinkle. 

‘M‘Allister,’ said Israel. 

‘ No, that was not his name. Pooke, I think it 
was.’ 

‘ Pooke ? Oh, that’s the sub-editor. How- 
ever, that’s all the same to you. Pooke can do 
you many a good turn if he likes,’ said Israel. 

‘ Le Brun introduced him as the editor,’ said 
Angelique, sticking resolutely to her point. 

‘I daresay. That’s her artfulness, you know. 
Oh ! Le Brun’s an old stager up to every move 
in the game. By the way, have you seen her in 
this new piece ?’ 

‘ Not yet. She never seems to have any seats 
to give away, though I think she might to her 
own pupils/ replied Angelique indignantly* 

‘ I shall be delighted to take you, if you will 
honour me with your company,’ said Israel 
Isaacs gallantly. 

For a moment Angelique felt her whole soul 
rise up in revolt against the possibility of such a 
proposal being carried into effect. A remem- 


THE MONEY SENSE 


41 

brance of Gustave Maynard, with his smooth, 
courtly manners, his well-bred air, and his defer- 
ential way, deferential yet very imperious, rose 
up before her. She — Angelique Dodsworth — to 
go to a theatre alone with this little White- 
chapel Jew, this little black-visaged creature 
whose crown did not reach to her ear. Oh ! it 
was preposterous, impossible. Then came second 
thoughts — always best they say. Gustave was 
no longer hers, but another’s ; Gustave was defer- 
ring to and hectoring over somebody else now ; 
Gustave was nothing to her now, and she must 
make the best of such chances as she had. Like 
a flash of lightning came a conviction that, after 
all, he evidently knew something of press land 
and press people ; he was rich, or at least well 
off, for he had a private sitting-room, and went 
away and came home in a cab every day of his 
life; and hideous and common as he was, he 
might make himself useful in a thousand ways to 
her. Therefore, she turned to him in her most 
gracious manner and with her most winning 
smile, saying that it was immensely good of him 
to think of her, and that she would love to go to 
the Royal with him any evening that he liked. 

‘ Shall we say to-morrow ?’ said he, who, with 
the instinct of his race, was anxious to clinch the 
engagement as soon as he could. 


42 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ Yes ; I don’t think we are doing anything 
to-morrow,’ said Angelique. She knew that 
they had not the faintest ghost of an engagement 
for the following evening, but it was part of her 
policy to invariably assume that she and Gwyn 
were greatly in request. 

For a moment Israel Isaacs was tempted to 
say that he had meant the invitation for her 
alone. Then he remembered that Mrs. Torville 
was a stylish looking woman, who would do him 
great credit if there chanced to be any one in the 
Royal who knew him, and also that it was better 
to break the ice gently, so as not to startle 
Angelique too much by her first plunge into 
Bohemia. Israel Isaacs might have spared him- 
self this concession to fashion, for Angelique was 
ready to become a Bohemian of Bohemia, and 
had no intention of being startled at anything. 
She broke the news to Gwyn later on. Gwyn’s 
face clouded. 

‘ Go to the theatre with that — that little Jew,’ 
she exclaimed with a gasp. ‘ Oh ! my dear 
Angel, you didn’t promise, surely?’ 

‘ Well — I did,’ said Angel, a little blankly. 

‘ But if any one we know sees us,’ cried Gwyn. 

‘ Oh ! how silly ! As if they would. Besides, 
if they do, any one from home will be in the dress 
circle, and we shall be in the stalls. They won’t 


THE MONEY SENSE 


43 


sniff at us. And, Gwyn, this little Jew man has 
heaps of press influence ; he can do no end for 
me ; and he is willing to help me. We’ve not 
got so much time or money that I can afford to 
lose a single chance. ’ 

‘ No, no, dear. I would not stand in your way 
for all the world — only — only — it seems so — so — 
preposterous you being taken about by such a 
man as that, particularly after — after such men 
as you have been used to. ’ 

‘ You mean Gustave, ’ said Angelique in a hard, 
grating tone. ‘You needn’t mind saying it, 
Gwyn. I feel it always.’ 

‘ My poor Angel ! ’ said Gwyn, in a perfect 
agony of self-reproach. ‘ You know I would not 
say anything to hurt you for the whole world. 
If it pleases you to go with this Mr. Isaacs, why 
of course we will.’ 

So they went. Angelique wore a simple black 
evening frock, and looked charming. And Israel 
Isaacs sat between the two distinguished-looking 
sisters, and positively swelled with pride. He 
was lavish too. Their seats were in the second 
row of stalls ; he gave them coffee and ices, 
and tipped the smart white-capped attendant 
handsomely. They were quite the best waited 
on people in the theatre. 

‘ She’s a queer old girl,’ said Israel Isaacs, as 


44 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Miss Le Brun swept oiBf the stage, ‘ but I always 
enjoy seeing her. Her style’s good.’ 

‘ I thought she might have made that point 
about the society woman much better,’ said 
Angelique, staring at the stage in a hard, 
critical way. 

‘ Le Brun never over-makes her points,’ said 
Israel. 

‘No, she under-values them,’ said Angelique. 

Mrs. Torville opened her eyes widely. Surely, 
if Angel was already able to pick holes in her 
teacher — but there, that was Angelique all over. 
She was always able to show her elders how 
things should be done ; in that, Angelique was 
only true to herself. 

‘She didn’t make enough of it; she doesn’t 
squeeze half enough out of the part. I’m dis- 
appointed in her,’ Angelique went on. ‘ I used 
to think her such a great actress, artist to her 
finger-tips, but now that I know her inside out, 
so to speak, I can see the joints in her harness 
almost without looking for them.’ 

‘ And when you come out, Miss Angelique,’ 
said Israel with a meaning leer, ‘ then ?’ 

‘ When /come out,’ said Angelique, taking the 
words out of his mouth, ‘ I am going to act — act 
— ACT every night of my life. That woman is 
walking through her part. She gives out all her 


THE MONEY SENSE 


45 


vitality bullying us in the mornings. She is used 
up by the time night comes. Oh ! you don’t 
know what it is for me to sit tamely here with 
every fibre of my being palpitating to be on the 
boards, to see all these people making so little of 
their opportunities, while Le Brun does not even 
trouble to act, but relies solely on her name.’ 

‘ But she had to make the name,’ suggested 
Gwyn. 

‘ Oh 1 that’s often done by accident, ’ returned 
Angelique promptly. 

‘ Let us hope that such an accident may happen 
to you. Miss Angelique,’ said Israel efiusively. 

‘If I only get my chance,’ said Angelique 
feverishly, as the curtain went up. 

That was always the burden of her cry — if she 
could only get the chance, if she could only have 
a show, a real show. 

‘ Angel, you really ought to wait Miss Le 
Brun’s time, and she does not think you ready,’ 
said Gwyn, when more than six months had 
gone by. 

‘ Le Brun — pooh ! What does Le Brun care 
about my getting on so long as she gets her 
fees ?’ cried Angelique scornfully. ‘ Le Brun’s 
one idea of getting me ready is to make me go 
over half a dozen parts till I know them by heart, 
till I am something more than word perfect. 


^6 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Who could play Lady Teazle to the Sir Peter of 
a Le Brun ? Who could play the Lady of Lyons 
to such a Claude Melnotte ? And what does she 
do to help me ? She gives me advice , she says 
it’s no use beginning at the top and climbing 
down to the bottom, that I ought to go for two 
or three years on tour with a good all-round 
stock company. Such rubbish ! And begin with 
Maria and the chambermaids’ parts ! Anything 
else? It’s my belief that Le Brun is just as 
jealous as ever she can be.’ 

‘Jealous ! ’ echoed Gwyn, ‘ but you don’t play 
the same kind of parts.’ 

‘No, of course not, but she knows I can cut 
her out at anything if I only get a chance. 
You’ve no idea, you dear old Safety-Valve; how 
much wire-pulling and dirty work there is to do 
before one can make the smallest headway. One 
has to lick the very dust before one gets a show, 
and then I suppose one will be exactly like all 
the others, and carefully kick down all those who 
are struggling up the ladder behind one.’ 

‘It seems very low and mean,’ cried Gwyn 
indignantly. 

‘ Yes, but life is low and mean and too sordid 
for words,’ said Angelique. ‘Come in?’ she 
added, in a different tone, as a knock sounded on 
the door. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


47 

It was opened an inch or so, and a man’s voice 
without said, ‘ A box for Miss Dodsworth.’ 

‘ Angelique jumped up. ‘Oh ! is it you, Joseph ?’ 
she exclaimed. ‘ Ah ! I’m glad that has come. 
Thank you for bringing it up at once.’ 

‘Angel, what’s that?’ asked Gwyn, as An- 
gelique shut the door again. 

‘It’s my frock from Wavertree’s,’ said An- 
gelique carelessly, 

‘ What frock ? Not a new one ?’ cried Gwyn. 

‘ Yes, didn’t I tell you ? Dear old Gwyn, it 
slipped my memory. I had to have a decent 
frock to go round seeing managers and people in. 
It’s no earthly use going in a shabby gown, 
they won’t look at you. This is quite a simple 
little frock — a plain tweed. ’ 

‘And it costs, how much?’ asked Gwyn 
nervously. 

‘ Oh ! very little. You needn’t worry about it,’ 
replied Angelique carelessly, as she took off the 
lid. ‘There, now, isn’t that pretty? Quite 
plain and simple, as you see.’ 

‘ But how soon will it have to be paid for ?’ 
Gwyn persisted. ‘ Because, you know, Angel, 
I have no money to spare — your cabs and odds 
and ends run away with so much ! And if the 
bill goes in to Father — well, I don’t suppose he 
would mind, but he would certainly tell Mother, 


48 THE MONEY SENSE 

and we — you — I — would never hear the last 
of it.’ 

‘ The bill won’ t go in to Father, ’ said Angelique , 
with a laugh. ‘ I’ve arranged all that. Waver- 
trees are quite prepared to wait my time for 
payment. ’ 

‘ And how much was it ?’ 

‘ Oh ! not much,’ replied Angelique, deftly 
crushing the bill which lay at the bottom of the 
box in her hand, ‘ about seven or eight guineas. 
I arranged it all for seven guineas, and then they 
suggested that the touch of braiding here and 
there would improve it vastly, and they promised 
to keep it as low as they could. Why, dear old 
Safety-Valve, are you pulling such a long face ? 
It’s not ruination.’ 

‘ I was thinking of the other gowns and things 
you haven’t paid for,’ said Gwyn soberly. ‘ You 
know, Angelique, if you don’t make this hit, we 
shall have to go home again ; and if there are 
debts, life won’t be worth living. ’ 

‘ I would rather die,’ said Angelique solemnly. 
‘I shall never go home again to live, Gwyn, never.’ 

‘ But if our resources come to an end ?’ said 
Gwyn. 

‘Oh ! they won’t do that. Why should they? 
To-morrow I shall paint my face and tire my 
head, and clad in my new Wavertree gown, I 


THE MONEY SENSE 


49 


shall sally forth to try the effect of my charms 
on the managers I haven’t seen yet. You would 
never believe the effect of a gown on a man, 
Gwyn ; you see, everything goes for effect on the 
stage, and appearance counts for so much. Wait 
till the next few days are over, and then see if 
you don’t admit that I was right to don sword 
and buckler for the fray.’ 

She had slipped into the new gown, and was 
turning herself slowly round and round before 
the glass door of the wardrobe. 

‘ Virette is doing me a little hat to match it,’ 
she said carelessly. 

‘Angel !’ cried Gwyn. 

‘Oh! dear, dear, are you at it again? You 
are getting almost as tiresome as Mother ! I tell 
you I must have things to wear. Goodness knows, 
I do with little enough I By the way, didn’t 
you have a letter from Mother this afternoon ?’ 

‘ Yes.’ 

‘ I suppose they’re all right at home ?’ with 
conventional indifference. 

‘ Madge is going to have another baby,’ said 
Gwyn. 

‘ Bless me 1’ cried Angelique, ‘ what does she 
do it for? Surely she has children enough? 
And he such a brute as he is. I can’t think how 
Madge stands it. ’ 


4 


50 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ Madge never complains. Madge is very fond 
of him,’ said Gwyn. 

‘ Is she ? Hum — the less said about that the 
better, / say. I’ve seen Madge look — oh ! well, 
it ’s her business. She is four years older than I, 
and must manage her own affairs and have her 
babies as she likes. We have enough to do to 
think out our own affairs properly. Listen, 
Gwyn, I have got a letter of introduction to 
Irving, and another to Wyndham, and to several 
other influential people. I shall go to Irving 
first. ’ 

‘ But your line is light comedy,’ cried Gwyn. 

‘That doesn’t matter. I shall fit my line to 
my parts. All I want is a chance. ’ 


CHAPTER V 


A GREAT many young women go to London 
from the provinces yearning to go on the stage, 
and full of a deep-rooted notion that the streets are 
paved with gold, and that fame and wealth are 
to be gathered as easy as dog-roses' from a 
country hedgerow. It needs but a very short 
time to teach such that they are mistaken, and 
they usually go home to their native heath 
deeply impressed with a belief that no good girl 
has the very smallest chance of getting a footing 
or a hearing. There are thousands of these 
stage-struck maidens always on hand, eagerly 
jostling one another in the race for a place. 
They have mostly burst the cut-and-dried bonds 
of their home-life ; they have mostly but little 
money with which to grease the wheels of their 
dramatic chariot, and what little they have, they 
usually let slip into the hands of teachers and 
agents as unscrupulous as they are incapable of 
rendering any real services to their clients ; and 
all these budding Juliets are, for the most part, 

51 


52 THE MONEY SENSE 

quite unfitted for the parts they are so eager 
to play. 

Angelique went all round. She procured letters 
to every manager of note, but without the very 
smallest success. Each one was overstocked ; 
each one had long lists of clever and handsome 
girls anxiously waiting for a chance of a vacancy ; 
each one told her that her only possible chance 
of making any mark in London was to give a 
matinde and to ask all the managers to go to see 
what she could do, what sort of stuff she was 
made of. 

‘ I see,’ said Angelique, almost in despair to 
Gwyn, ‘ that it ’s the only chance I have. Surely 
that horrid old Le Brun might have told me it 
was the best way instead of stufl&ng me up with 
an idea that she could get me an engagement, 
and then wanting me to go on tour for years and 
years. ’ 

‘ But what will a matinde cost ?’ Gwyn asked. 

‘ Oh ! a pretty good lot — two hundred at least,’ 
Angelique answered carelessly. 

Gwyn almost screamed. ‘ My dear Angel, it’s 
out of the question. We haven’t two hundred 
pence to spare ! Why should it cost so much for 
a single performance ?’ 

‘Well, we couldn’t have it in a mangy little 
theatre,’ Angelique explained. ‘ In that case the 


THE MONEY SENSE 


53 


best people wouldn’t come. Then, of course, one 
would have to have a good company to support 
one properly. It’s the greatest mistake in the 
world to try to show oneself off in bad surround- 
ings. Have the best theatre and the best people 
you can possibly get, and then you have a chance 
of doing yourself justice. I shall have Wilmot 
if I can get him.’ 

‘ But who is going to pay for it ?’ cried Gwyn. 

‘ Oh ! that ’s easily managed. I shall try for 
the Haymarket.’ 

‘ The Haymarket Theatre ?’ exclaimed Gwyn 
aghast. 

‘ Oh yes. I daresay it won’t be easy, but it’s 
no use spoiling the ship for a ha’pny-worth of 
tar,’ Angelique replied. 

‘ But where is the money to come from ?’ 
Gwyn cried. 

Angelique crossed from the fireside and sat 
down beside her. ‘Gwyn,’ she said, ‘I’m not 
going to ask Father to pay for it. No, dear old 
Safety-Valve, I know a better way than that. 
Israel Isaacs ’ 

^ Angel/' cried Gwyn indignantly. ‘ You can- 
not take money, money from that little Jew.’ 

‘ Of course not. Who said anything about 
money ? I am going to provide my own dresses. 
But the rest — well, he is well off, rich really, very 


54 


THE MONEY SENSE 


keen on the stage, very keen on — on — making me 
Mrs. Israel Isaacs, and I don’t see why I 
shouldn’t make use of him — he being more than 
willing to be made use of. ’ 

‘ Then he has proposed to you ?’ 

‘ Yes, several times.’ 

‘ And you have said No?’ 

‘ Most emphatically.’ 

‘ And yet he is willing to spend all this money 
for you ?’ 

‘ Y es, perfectly willing. Look here, G wyn, look 
at the matter in a sensible, business-like light. 
All Jews expect to give as well as take, and 
Israel Isaacs is an Israelite of the Israelites. 
You and I are the two best-looking and smartest 
women that he has ever known in his life. He 
gains distinction from being friendly with us. If 
he is seen by any of his own people with us, he 
is proud, and they are curious and perhaps a little 
envions, for all Jews are more proud of their 
Christian acquaintances than of the most inti- 
mate friendship of all their own nation put 
together. If he stands this expense for me, and 
I make a good success, it will always be to his 
advantage — he will always be able to say that he 
discovered me. Do you see ?’ 

‘ Yes, I see what you mean, but I don’t approve 
of it any the more for that,’ said Gwyn slowly 


THE MONEY SENSE 


55 


and deliberately. ‘ It seems to me that you are 
laying yourself under the most tremendous 
obligations to a man who is really only a casual 
acquaintance, picked up in a boarding-house. 
You can never repay him.’ 

‘And why not ?’ asked Angelique fiercely. 

‘Angelique, don’t be angry, don’t think me a 
wet blanket,’ said Gwyn earnestly. ‘ You know 
I love you better than anything else in all the 
wide world, and you know I would do anything 
to help you on, but we have been up in London 
eight months now, and what nearer are you to 
what you wish for than you were when we first 
left home ? Not one step ! You have run up a 
lot of bills that you can never pay; you have 
spent money working up interest here and 
making friends there ; and I am afraid if you 
give this matinee, that it will only be a dead 
failure. You know Le Brun had but little opinion 
of your gifts, and said freely that you would 
never do anything on the stage! Dear Angel, 
I don’t say this to hurt. It is best to look facts 
straight iu the face. Each time you played with 
amateurs I have watched you carefully; and I 
always came away with the same feeling, that 
though you are brilliant and fascinating in 
ordinary life, picturesque in looks and lissom 
and elegant in figure, yet the moment you step 


56 THE MONEY SENSE 

on to the stage your brilliancy and your charm all 
go, and you become stiff, awkward, and lifeless.’ 

‘Yet you kept all this to yourself,’ said 
Angelique in a dangerously quiet tone. 

‘ Because at first I thought it was the newness, 
the strangeness, the want of familiarity with it 
all,’ the other replied. ‘As long as our own 
money lasts, Father would not wish you to stop 
your efforts; you have a right to go on; but 
when it comes to taking a large sum of money 
from a little Jew, then it is time to speak.’ 

‘Well, you have spoken, and now nothing more 
need be said. Once for all, Gwyn, I won’t be 
interfered with in this matter. I must have a 
matinee; it is necessary to my career. My 
father cannot or will not give it to me; Israel 
Isaacs can and gladly will. I have already 
accepted his generous offer, and he is now in 
treaty for the Haymarket Theatre.’ 

‘And your explanation to Father and Mother ?’ 
asked Gwyn. 

‘ None is necessary except to tell the bare 
truth,’ said Angelique, with dignity. ‘ I am not 
ashamed of being helped by Israel Isaacs; he is 
my friend, my true friend. I have never been 
ashamed of my friends; and if I succeed, I shall 
be prouder still, because I shall have justified 
his belief in me.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


57 


‘And if you fail ?’ asked Gwyn involuntarily, 
for a remembrance came back to her of how she 
had asked the great actress, Le Brun, her candid 
opinion of her young sister. ‘A beautiful creat- 
ure, my dear,’ was Le Brun’s frank comment, 
‘ but stupid as a mule, and dense as an owl. One 
can neither drive nor lead her. She will never 
make an actress; it isn’t in her.’ 

‘ I shall not fail,’ cried Angelique, her eyes all 

in a blaze. ‘ But if I do ’ 

‘ You will have to go home to Beech Croft,’ 
said Gwyn prosaically, ‘ and then how will all 
your debts be paid ?’ 

‘ My debts,’ said Angelique, bursting into a 
laugh, ‘ are so infinitesimal that I don’t think 
you need worry about them. ’ 

‘ Your black silk,’ said Gwyn. ‘ your last tailor- 
made — the little blue gown and the one you had 

for Ascot — hats — shoes ’ 

‘Oh! do stop, Gwyn, why go into it all?’ the 
girl cried impatiently. ‘What is the good of 
going on ? Look here, I have quite made up my 
mind to one thing. I won't go home. If all 
else fails, I shall marry Israel Isaacs.’ 


CHAPTER VI 

As an actress Angelique Dodsworth was a dead 
failure ! Never perhaps in all the history of the 
modern stage had any young woman, beautiful, 
well-dressed and elegant, after six months’ train- 
ing under several of the first teachers of the day, 
proved herself such a complete and entire stick 
when put to the serious test of a public perform- 
ance. The house was fairly filled — mostly with 
paper — and the more important managers were 
conspicuous by their absence. Miss Le Brun sat 
in the front rows of the stalls, and took a keen 
and deadly interest in the performance from 
beginning to end. In the Royal box was Israel 
Isaacs, all alone in his glory, and embowered in 
bouquets of rare and costly flowers. In the oppo- 
site box was Gwyn with Mrs. Dodsworth, who 
beamed majestically upon the scene, as whoshould 
say, ‘ Now that a daughter of mine has gone upon 
the stage, a new era has dawned for dramatic 
art!’ Gwyn was suffering untold agonies of 
anxiety and dread. The lavish Israel, who prided 
58 


THE MONEY SENSE 


59 


himself on doing things well, had generously pro- 
vided their box with a couple of superb tributes 
to be offered to Angelique at a suitable moment. 
But the heavily perfumed flowers seemed to strike 
a wrong note, and their beauty jarred upon 
Gwyn’s sensitive nature; they seemed to be 
making sure too soon, and she would have liked 
to have put them away quite at the back of the 
box, so that they might be quietly smuggled out 
of sight if they were obviously not required ; But 
Mrs. Dodsworth, who was troubled by no qualms 
as to the possibility of a daughter of hers being 
anything but a success, liked the feeling of sitting 
in a London theatre the observed of all observers, 
and would not allow them to be touched. 

So there Gwyn sat, sick at heart, and full of 
foreboding. She tried to take an intelligent in- 
terest in the play , which was one very frequently 
aired for the purpose of showing off the merits — 
to say nothing of the demerits — of young ladies 
on their promotion. But she was only really 
conscious of one thing, which was that while the 
rest of the company were making gallant efforts 
to carry off a success, Angelique was simply a 
hideous and ghastly failure. Every time that 
she came on, Gwyn felt herself going hot and 
cold, every word that she spoke seemed to the 
anxious listener like a travesty, every move- 


6o 


THE MONEY SENSE 


merit was angular and clumsy, every gesture a 
violation of nature and common sense. 

It came to an end at last — the worst hours do 
in due course. The bouquets were handed to an 
awkward and shamefaced Angel ique, who believed 
in her soul that she had won every laugh and 
every round of applause, feeble though each one 
had been. ‘ I think it all went off charmingly,’ 
said Mrs. Dodsworth, hitching her cloak up about 
her shoulders with a gesture peculiarly her own, 
and staring hard at the green curtain which had 
been let down at the end of the play. 

Gwyn’s heart gave a throb. Yes, it was a good 
thing that her mother had not seen things as they 
really were, but through the glamour of her own 
importance ; for when the bad notices poured out 
the following day, she would have at once the in- 
stinct of protecting an ill-used Angelique rather 
than of blaming the girl for her failure. 

‘ Don’t you think we ought to be going?’ she 
suggested. ‘They will be wanting to shut up 
the theatre.’ 

Mrs. Dodsworth looked round vaguely. ‘ Ange- 
lique did not want us to go behind,’ she said 
lingeringly. 

‘She especially begged us not to do so; we 
might be in the way of managers,’ answered 
Gwyn. 


THE MONEY SENSE 6i 

Mrs. Dodsworth rose. ‘ I wonder how many 
managers went round, ’ she said. 

‘ Let us go home,’ said Gwyn. ‘Angel will tell 
us all when she comes back.’ 

She was nervously anxious to get out of the 
theatre, to shake the dust of the afternoon’s 
humiliation off her soul. She felt as if every 
person still in sight was identifying her with her 
sister’s failure. At last she piloted her mother 
out into the street and got her into a cab, whose 
driver she ordered to go to Derrick’s. 

‘ Angelique had five bouquets, ’ said Mrs. Dods- 
worth, in a tone of much satisfaction. ‘ Gwyn, 
don’t you think we ought to to telegraph to 
Father?’ 

‘ No, no, not till the papers are out,’ said Gwyn 
feverishly. ‘ You know we can be sure of nothing 
till then.’ 

‘ But she had five bouquets,’ Mrs. Dodsworth 
persisted. 

‘ She could have had a hundred and five if she 
had arranged for them beforehand, ’ said Gwyn, 
who began to despair of ever making her mother 
see things in their right light. 

Mrs. Dodsworth, however, babbled quietly on, 
telling Gwyn a long story about a frock which 
she had had new for her sixteenth birthday, and 
which was extremely like the gown v/hich 


62 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Angelique had worn in the second act, only that 
her dress had been of gingham, while Angelique’s 
was of silk ; hers had been blue, while Angeliqiie’s 
was of a decided heliotrope. ‘ I always like 
Angelique best in those little simple frocks, ’ said 
Mrs. Dodsworth as the cab turned into the street 
leading to Derrick’s ; ‘they show her off so well.’ 

Gwyn sighed, a sigh that was strangled in its 
birth, as she thought of that particular little 
‘ simple ’ frock. It had cost sixteen guineas at a 
Bond Street modiste's^ and was the cheapest of 
the three new gowns which Angelique had had 
for the occasion. How they were to be paid for, 
God alone knew ! 

Mrs. Derrick, who was always described by 
Mrs. Dodsworth as ‘ an eminently respectable 
person, my dear, and quite devoted to me, ’ met 
them as they entered the house. 

‘ A great success, I hope,’ she said, by way of 
greeting them. 

Gwyn hesitated for want of some noncom- 
mitting form of prevarication, but there was no 
hesitation about Mrs. Dodsworth. She beamed 
blandly upon Mrs. Derrick, and answered 
promptly with a large vagueness which sounded, 
as it was, the essence of satisfaction. 

‘ Everything that we could wish,’ she said. 
‘And my daughter had five bouquets.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 63 

‘ How delightful ! I am so glad. I hope she 
will bring them home and give us the benefit of 
them. Do come into my room, Mrs. Dodsworth. 
Afternoon tea is over, so I thought you would 
like a cup to yourselves. ’ 

‘ So thoughtful of you,’ said Mrs. Dodsworth 
graciously, following the landlady into the sitting- 
room. Then she sat down upon the wide chintz- 
clad sofa and enlarged smoothly upon Angel- 
iqne’s triumphs. 

‘ Of course, I was dying to go round and see 
her, but it was impossible. All the managers went 
round at once ; it is their only chance of securing 
a new star. I only hope that Angelique will not 
be foolish in letting them get the better of her. 
If she would only have consented to let me 
receive these people and make terms, I know it 
would have made all the difference in the world. 
But it is the same with all the young folks nowa- 
days; they will go their own way, and their way 
is not always our way.’ 

‘ I daresay Miss Dodsworth’ s agent will look 
after all that,’ suggested Mrs. Derrick, pouring 
a little boiling water into the china teapot the 
better to air it. 

‘ Oh ! her agent will be there, of course,’ re- 
plied Mrs. Dodsworth. ' Ah, well, I am very glad 
she has made such a success of it. She was never 


64 THE MONEY SENSE 

intended for the stage — indeed, a year and a half 
ago I could not have believed that I could have 
sat calmly to watch a daughter of mine make her 
debut as an actress ; but, poor child, she had an 
affair — well, an engagement — and the man did 
not behave ’ 

‘I don’t think Angelique would like to have 
that talked about, Mother,’ put in Gwyn, whose 
pity for Angel had come back a thousandfold. 

‘ My dear, surely / am the best judge of what 
is good behaviour or bad,’ said Mrs. Dodsworth, 
with a great assumption of dignity. ‘ Gustave 
did behave very badly to Angelique, and she has 
never been the same girl since. I am too thankful 
that she has found some distraction ; for, of 
course, she has never had the smallest need to do 
anything for a living.’ 

‘ You misunderstand me. Mother,’ said Gwyn, 
who saw that it was vain to hope to stem the 
torrent of her mother’s flow of reminiscence. 

‘ Of course,’ Mrs. Dodsworth went on, expand- 
ing yet more and more under the influence of the 
fresh hot tea and buttered toast, ‘ life at Beech 
Croft is a little dull for a girl, even if she has 
every luxury — horses to ride, carriages and the 
best society for miles around. It was because 
we felt that so strongly that her father and I 
were willing to let her try this experiment.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 65 

Mrs. Torville felt herself growing crimson with 
shame at her mother’s airy description of life 
at Beech Croft. She looked at her in utter 
astonishment, wondering whether she did really 
deceive herself into a belief of her assertion that 
Angelique had enjoyed all the advantages which 
she so glibly recounted. A vision of the dear 
old rambling farmhouse, with its long row of 
windows looking into the quaint village street, 
came before her. It was a sweetly pretty house, 
two stories in height, with wide* windows and 
many creepers over-climbing it. It was beauti- 
fully kept, too, with the neatest of short muslin 
blinds to the upper windows, and with hand- 
some lace curtains shrouding those below. Mrs. 
Dodsworth’s steps too were always clean washed, 
with no disfiguring white stuff bedaubing them. 
In summer the stone vases on either side the 
entrance were gay with flowers, and in winter a 
ruddy glow always gleamed from the windows. 
It was an ideal middle-class country house, 
and they visited with the vicar and the 
doctor and all the better-class farmers and 
private persons. But of luxuries there were few; 
the ‘ horses to ride ’ meant old Beauty the pony, 
which was as old as Angelique herself ; and the 
‘ carriages ’ meant the solid tub of a waggonette 
dravmby the matronly Jinny. Truly, Beech Croft 
5 


66 


THE MONEY SENSE 


was a dear old place, and had been in the Dods- 
worth family for several generations ; but plain, 
honest, God-fearing John Dodsworth had never 
pretended to the possession of any better position 
than that held by his father and his grandfather 
before him ; he aspired to being no more than a 
better-class farmer, sometimes holding office as 
churchwarden, and taking a keen interest in the 
affairs and politics of the district. 

Fortunately, Mrs. Dodsworth’ s explanations 
were brought to an abrupt termination by the en- 
trance of Angelique and Israel Isaacs. Angelique 
gratefully accepted Mrs. Derrick’s offer of a cup 
of tea, and sat down by Gwyn with an air of 
extreme weariness. 

* And how many managers came round to see 
you ?’ Mrs. Dodsworth asked eagerly. ‘ Did you 
have very good offers, Angelique ?’ 

‘ Not one !’ said Angelique curtly. ‘ You must 
know perfectly well that the whole thing was a 
dead failure from first to last.’ 

‘ A dead failure ! But you had five bouquets !’ 
Mrs. Dodsworth cried incredulously. ‘ And the 
applause was deafening.’ 

‘Was it?’ said Angelique bitterly. ‘It did 
not sound so to me. Of course, it was all Wilmot’s 
fault. The brute took care no one should get 
anything out of it except himself. But I’ll be 


THE MONEY SENSE 67 

even with him yet. I mean to chuck up acting 
and go in for journalism, and I’ll give him a bad 
notice every time I put pen to paper. ’ 

‘ Go in for journalism — what, write for the 
newspapers ?’ Mrs. Dodsworth gasped. 

‘Yes,’ returned Angelique, with a defiant stare 
right into her mother’s meaningless, bewildered 
face. ‘ And I only wish I had begun with that 
at first. I should have been at the top of the 
tree by this time.’ 

Gwyn involuntarily gave a sigh, then gathered 
up her belongings and left the room. She had 
barely closed the door of the bedroom behind her 
when Angelique came darting in, shutting it 
again with a crash, and turning the key viciously 
in the lock. 

‘Oh, Gwyn, Gwyn, it’s all over !’ she cried, 
flinging herself down in the big armchair by the 
fireplace. 

‘ My poor Angel, it is hard on you,’ murmured 
the other. 

‘ Yes, and to hear Mother babbling on, going 
into details about everything of which she 
is utterly and entirely ignorant, is too maddening 
for words. My God, how am I to get through 
the next three months ? ’ 

‘ Why three months ?’ asked Gwyn. 

‘ I’ve got to go home, haven’t I ?’ Angelique 


68 


THE MONEY SENSE 


asked impatiently. ‘I’ve no sort of excuse for 
stopping here. And our year is up. Father won’t 
give me any more money. Is it likely?’ 

‘But why .three months?’ asked Gwyn, who 
was honestly puzzled. 

‘I must live somewhere till I am married,’ 
Angelique snapped fiercely. 

‘Oh, Angel!’ Gwyn cried, the light suddenly 
breaking in upon her. ‘ You’ve not promised to 
marry this — this little Jew 1’ 

‘ Of course I have,’ shifting her shoulder 
impatiently from the touch of Gwyn’s tender 
hand. 

‘But, darling, it’s monstrous, it’s impossible. 
You don’t love this man, you cannot marry him,’ 
Gwyn cried. ‘ Think, dear, it’s for life — for good 
and all — day and night — think of it 1 There will 
be no getting away from him, as — as you are able 
to do from Mother when she worries you.’ 

‘I do think of it, I have thought of it, ’ Angelique 
answered. ‘But it’s got to be, and I must go 
through with it with the best grace I can,’ 

‘ But, Angel, my darling, ’ cried Gwyn in an 
agony, ‘ after Gustave, how can you do it ?’ 
This little Jew — who is he? What is he ? Where 
did he come from ? His very name is an abomi- 
nation — Israel Isaacs ! Was ever such a name ! 
You can’t do it, Angel. Eeave it to me, and I 


THE MONEY SENSE 69 

will save you from yourself. You know that 
I love you better than anything on earth. I will 
talk to Mother and Father, and get them to let you 
stay here a few months longer, and perhaps you 
will make a success of journalism. Anything will 
be better than marrying such a man — that would 
be an outrage on your womanhood! I should look 
upon you as worse than the women in the streets.’ 

‘ Poor wretches !’ said Angelique in a softer 
tone ; ‘ are they so bad ? One does not know 
their temptation nor what broken love first drove 
them to it.’ 

‘ That’s as may be,’ said Gwyn. ‘ God knows, 
I am sorry for every woman whose life goes wrong; 
I am sorry for every woman who sells herself body 
and soul for money. But when it comes to you — 
you^ Angel — it is not the mere feeling of being 
sorry; it is anguish — agony I My dear, you 
will give up this monstrous idea of yours; you 
will go home for a little while ’ 

‘ I cannot go home,’ said the girl slowly. 

‘ Why not ? Angel, you have done this in the 
bitterness of your disappointment, but it can be 
undone — if it is not too late.’ 

‘ Yes, it is too late.’ 

‘ No, Angel, no. Think of your futurelife — your 
very name, Angelique Isaacs, Mrs. Israel Isaacs. 
Oh ! Angel, Angel I’ 


70 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ He is going to change his name,’ said Angel, 

‘ many Jews do that. He is going to take the 
name of Ingram — Ian Ingram.’ 

‘ He may change his name to please you,’ cried 
Gwyn indignantly, ‘ but he cannot change him- 
self, he cannot change his nose, his thick-lipped 
Jewish mouth, his nasal Jew voice. Oh ! Angel, 
Angel, come home. Be an old maid, stay 
unmarried for ever, but don’t degrade yourself 
like this. Don’t do this awful thing. Oh ! to 
think of my Angel the mother of a tribe of little 
Whitechapel J ews like this Israel Isaacs. Think, 
think what you are doing. Come home, Angel, 
come home ! 

‘I cannot go home,’ said Angel, turning her 
white face around to her sister. ‘ Even if I could 
stand Mother, which I couldn’ t, I must marry 
to pay my debts.’ 

‘Your debts !’ Gwyn echoed. 

‘ Gwyn,’ said Angelique,drawinghersister down 
so that she might speak low in her ear, ‘ putting 
the cost of this matinde out of the question, and, 
mind you, I promised I would marry himif I failed, 
I have my private debts to think of. He will pay 
them, and I shall be troubled no more with them. 
Mother and Father would go mad if they knew. 
It’s the only way out of it ; for one way or 
another, I owe over five hundred pounds!’ 


CHAPTER VII 

Since Angelique had given her promise, it 
was but a matter of time and the cost of a few 
pounds for Israel Isaacs to be transformed legally 
into Mr. Ian Ingram. Why he should have 
chosen such a name as Ingram, or such a name 
as Ian to precede it, was best known to himself; 
but as he explained to Angelique, he had kept 
to the same initials so as to be able to go on 
using his sleeve-links and similar belongings. To 
Angelique, so long as she had not to bear such an 
appellation as that of ‘Mrs. Israel Isaacs,’ the 
actual name was a matter of the most perfect 
indifference. She was very wretched at this 
time ; for Gwyn had shut her mouth into a thin 
line, and refused to discuss the engagement after 
that terrible day when Angelique had failed so 
hideously to ‘strike ile’ as an actress, and had 
confessed to being in debt for more than five 
hundred pounds. She felt that there was nothing 
more to be said; that it was but a waste of 
words to further argue the point with Angelique ; 

71 


TPIE MONEY SENSE 


72 ^ 

she felt indeed that there was nothing left for 
the girl to do but to marry, and there seemed 
just then to be nobody else at hand sufiBciently 
well off to be worth marrying. 

Not that Angelique wished to discuss the 
engagement or the rapidly approaching marriage. 
She had to endure more than enough discussion 
at the hands or the lips of her mother. For 
that good lady had forgotten every other topic of 
interest in the delightful task of enlarging upon 
the advantages of Mr. Ingram’s position and the 
singular virtues of his remarkable character. 

Naturally, the news of Angelique’s engagement 
spread like wild fire through the neighbourhood, 
and all the friends and acquaintances of the 
Dodsworth family came from far and near to 
learn full details of the match, and to offer their 
congratulations. Among them was Mrs. Williams 
her lips smiling more than her eyes, and her 
tongue dipped in gall and wormwood. 

‘ So, Angelique,’ she began, as soon as she had 
seated herself, ‘ I hear we are to congratulate 
you again.'' 

‘Not unless you wish, Mrs. Williams,’ said 
Angelique, very sweetly. 

‘ Well, I hope you will be more fortunate this 
time,’ said Mrs. Williams, staring hard at the 
girl, and wondering what was the meaning of her 


THE MONEY SENSE 


73 


pale cheeks and wan looks. Mrs. Williams had a 
habit of staring fixedly at people, as if she were 
a Kodak, and would take a better negative by 
looking longer. Angelique bore the process 
fairly well, and if she flushed, did not quail 
under it. 

‘ You are always so kind,’ she said deliberately. 

Mrs. Williams had the grace to look a little 
ashamed. ‘ You will let us know when to send 
our little souvenir,’ she said, in some confusion. 

‘Oh, any time,’ said Angelique promptly. 

‘ You would like something for your house ?’ 
suggested Mrs. Williams insinuatingly. 

‘ No, I would rather have something for myself,’ 
replied Angelique, without hesitation. ‘ You see 
Mr. Ingram is not badly off, and he will do the 
furnishing part of the business.’ 

‘ Oh, he is well off !’ exclaimed Mrs. Williams. 

‘ I certainly should not marry him if he were 
not well enough oflf to furnish a house for me,’ 
said Angelique. 

‘ And he is , but perhaps he lives on his 

means,’ suggested Mrs. Williams, who was dying 
to know all about the bridegroom elect. 

‘ Mr. Ingram is in the city,’ replied Angelique, 
well knowing that such a term conveyed about 
as much to the country-bred lady as if she had 
said that he was something in the moon. 


74 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ I see. Ah, here is your mother. My dear 
Mrs. Dodsworth , how well you are looking !’ 

Mrs. Dodsworth was looking well. She enjoyed 
nothing so much as a wholly new topic of con- 
versation, and the importance of Angelique’s 
approaching marriage was as meat and drink to 
her. H^r graciousness was maddening, her con- 
descension something to be felt, her self-satisfac- 
tion immense. As she sat down, Angelique got up. 

‘ Now, Mrs. Williams,’ she said, with a mingled 
sweetness and acidity which was like the curious 
jam, half salt, half sweet, which comes from the 
Cape, ‘ now that Mother has come I can leave 
you to hear all the details. It is dreadful for a 
girl to talk over her own marriage when she has 
a mother who will do it so much better. You 
won’t mind my going, I’m sure.’ 

Mrs. Williams had no choice but to smile her 
acquiescence, and Angelique disappeared. Mrs. 
Dodsworth began to enlarge on the subject 
immediately. 

‘ We are so delighted with this marriage, Mr. 
Dodsworth and I,’ she began. ‘ Rich ? Oh yes, 
very rich indeed. Angelique will live in great 
style. He has given her such presents — every- 
thing in such taste, so exactly suited to her.’ 

‘ And they are going to be married — when?’ 

‘ In about six weeks’ time,’ blandly. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


75 

‘ She is not going to dawdle this time,’ 
remarked Mrs. Williams. 

‘ You are thinking of her flirtation with 
Gustave Maynard ?’ said Mrs. Dodsworth, taking 
up her knitting and clicking away with her 
needles. ‘ Oh, that was a mere boy and girl 
afiair — there was never anything serious in it. I 
should have been very sorry if that had come to 
anything.’ 

‘ I thought you looked upon young Maynard as 
a good match at the time,’ said Mrs. Williams, 
who remembered perfectly well all Mrs. Dods- 
worth’s lecturettes on the subject. 

‘I — oh, dear me ! no, you are quite mistaken 
there,’ Mrs. Dodsworth cried. But I said 
nothing to oppose it. I have always said that I 
would never drive a daughter of mine to an 
injudicious marriage by standing out against it. 
I have always thought,’ she went on, in a tone 
of pious self-congratulation, ‘ that parents work 
a great deal of harm by meddling too much with 
their children’s affairs.’ 

‘There I fully agree with you,’ said Mrs. 
Williams mendaciously, for she distinctly remem- 
bered the very day when Mrs. Dodsworth had 
spoken of Gustave Maynard with bated breath, 
as it were, and had given her an impression that 
her opinion of him was so high that it was only 


76 


THE MONEY SENSE 


the fact that Angelique was a daughter of hers 
which rendered her in any way fit to be bride of 
his. ‘Then you and Mr. Dodsworth are very 
much pleased with this Mr. Ingram ?’ 

‘ More than pleased,’ Mrs. Dodsworth replied, 
‘ He is so genuine — so generous — such a gentle- 
man. And he is so devoted to me. ’ 

A ribald thoughtflashed through Mrs, Williams’ 
every-day mind that Mrs. Dodsworth’s son-in-law 
elect did not yet know her very well. Mrs, 
Dodsworth rambled serenely on, all unconscious 
of the ironical ideas flitting through her visitor’s 
busy brain. 

‘We are going up next week for a few days,’ 
she continued. ‘ Mr. Ingram wishes to introduce 
Angelique to some of his relatives. He is one 
of a very large family, all rich people, and de- 
lighted at his marrying a ’ she had been on 

the eve of saying ‘a Christian,’ but bit the tell- 
tale word off short and covered her blunder with 
such skill as she could muster up. ‘ So delighted 
at his marriage with Angelique.’ 

Mrs. Williams had, however, noticed the hitch 
and, like Captain Cuttle, made a note of it. ‘And 
I suppose she will be getting most of her things 
in London?’ she remarked, more deeply im- 
pressed by Mrs. Dodsworth’s explanations than 
she would have admitted for worlds, 


THE MONEY SENSE 


77 


‘ Oh, everything !’ Mrs. Dodsworth replied. 
‘ Mr. Ingram would not allow Angelique to wear 
anything but the very best. He is most par- 
ticular about her, and he thinks nothing good 
enough for her. Then, of course, there are all 
the details of the wedding to be arranged. ’ 

‘ Of the wedding ! But is not Angelique going 
to be married in the usual way?’ 

‘ In Eondon,’ said Mrs. Dodsworth, letting the 
news slip out with apparent unconsciousness. 

‘ In London !’ repeated the other, staring more 
fixedly than ever. ‘ What, isn’t our church good 
enough, and her own father the vicar’s church- 
warden?’ 

‘ Oh, it is not for that !’ said Mrs. Dodsworth, 
with mysterious friendliness, ‘ but, of course, we 
have Mr. Ingram, to consider. He has so many 
friends and relations in London, and naturally, as 
Angelique is going to live among them, he wishes 
them all to be at the wedding.’ 

Mrs. Williams shut up her mouth, and deter- 
mined in her own mind that her marriage gift 
should take the form of a pair of silver sleeve- 
links ; for, she argued, as she released herself from 
the unctuous stream of Mrs. Dodsworth’s con- 
verse, what was the good of spending a lot of 
money over a wedding present for a girl who 
was not only going to live away from Beech 


78 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Croft, but who was actually to be married away 
from the place ? 

So it crept out that Angelique Dodsworth was to 
be married in London, and her wedding gifts from 
Beech Croft folk were proportionately meagre. 
Not that she cared a button for that. She was 
marrying for money, and Ian Ingram had plenty 
of it and to spare ; what did a few cheap wedding 
presents from a little hole like Beech Croft 
matter ? In truth, the fewer belongings she had 
to remind her of the old narrow life the better. 

Never in all this world did weeks drag along so 
slowly as the weeks which preceded Angelique’ s 
wedding. She hated and loathed Beech Croft 
more fiercely than ever, not only every stick and 
stone of it, but everybody in it. She viewed the 
scene from the dining-room window every morn- 
ing with a fresh accession of disgust and weari- 
ness. She pined and longed to be free, to be 
married, to be in London, her own mistress, with 
plenty of money, and an adoring husband whose 
only object in living was to do her will, to be 
free of all this petty, tittle-tattling, gossiping 
life, to have done with Beech Croft for ever. 

As for the presents which arrived from time 
to time, she regarded them with the most 
absolute disfavor. ‘ Another tea-cosy !’ she 
remarked one afternoon, when the maid brought 


THE MONEY SENSE 


79 


in a large parcel wrapped up in white paper. ‘ I 
wonder why Beech Croft should think it neces- 
sary to unload all its bazaar raffles on to me? 
Do they think I’m going to keep a Berlin wool 
shop ?’ 

‘ Shall I open it?’ her mother asked. 

‘ Oh yes, Mother, pray do, if you don’t mind 
the trouble. I know pretty well what it is,’ 
Angelique replied. ‘ I shall stow them all away 
and give them to the first bazaar I’m asked to 
patronise. Ah! I told you so — crewel work 
this time. Look at the thing I Why, it’s 
enough to give you the horrors.’ 

Every one of the homely offerings had the 
same effect upon her — that of making her long 
more and more fiercely for the day when she 
would really turn her back for ever on the 
quaint little town in which she had been born. 
She even grew in his absence to think of Israel 
Isaacs, that is to say, Ian Ingram, as of an 
entirely superior being, as somebody who would 
release her from this bondage, who would set 
wide open those enchanted gates through which 
she would pass in to a wider, fuller life beyond, 
the life which goes by its own name in quotes. 

‘ I know you don’t like my young man,’ she 
said one day to Gwyn; ‘ but, after all, he is worth 
a million of these people here. He is no beauty, 


8o 


THE MONEY SENSE 


it’s true, and he had the misfortune to be born a 
Jew, but he loves me, and is good to me. What 
more could I want ?’ 

‘ If you love him,’ began Gwyn, when Angel- 
ique interposed. 

‘ No, I’m not what is called in love, Gwyn. I 
shall never be in love again. I like him and I 
respect him, and I mean to shape my whole life 
so as to repay his intense goodness to me. I’m 
going to be the best wife in London, Gwyn.’ 

‘ God grant it, Angel,’ was Gwyn’s comment. 
But her mind involuntarily went back with a 
rush to a dozen ventures in the past on which 
Angelique had staked her very all, and she 
caught herself looking forward with a pang of 
dread to the next complete failure. 


CHAPTER VIII 


There was no longer any such person as An- 
gelique Dodsworth. By the aid of various Rabbis 
and a large contingent of florid-skinned persons 
generously blessed as to facial, not to say racial, 
features, Angelique had been, with many strange 
rites, transformed into Mrs. Ian Ingram. 

How happy she was ! Even Mrs. Dodsworth’s 
curious interpretations of the Jewish character 
and customs failed to annoy her; for she was free 
at last of the old traditions, the old obligations, 
the old ties and associations. Mrs. Dodsworth 
wept a little when the final parting came, and 
Gwyn held her sister hard for a moment, with a 
terrible sinking at her heart and a firm convic- 
tion that their days of sisterhood were quite 
over. 

Angelique, however, would not allow the glory 
of her wedding day to be dimmed for a single 
moment. ‘ No, you must not cry either of you,* 
she said, in her gayest tones. ‘This is the 
happiest day of my life, and I cannot have it 
6 


82 


THE MONEY SENSE 


spoiled by tears. Pray, let me see you both 
happy and smiling to the very last.’ 

It was Gwyn who made the effort and forced a 
smile to her sad face. Mrs. Dodsworth con- 
tented herself with turning away and gurgling a 
few damp entreaties to Ian Ingram that he 
would be good to her darling. And Ian Ingram 
with his arm part of the way round Mrs. Dods- 
worth’s ample waist, promised and vowed many 
things with a readiness which in itself might to 
some people have sounded to a certain degree 
suspicious. But to Mrs. Dodsworth, in spite of 
the tears, everything at that moment was tinted 
a brilliant rose-colour, and she was firmly con- 
vinced that Angelique was the luckiest and 
happiest girl to be found in the three kingdoms 
that day. 

And, at last, the bride and groom got away 
from the crowd of guests at the hotel where 
Mrs. Dodsworth’ s reception had been given, and 
started on the first stage of their life together. 
Angelique was supremely happy ; for Ian spent 
money like water, tipped all the railway people 
right and left, bought her a great sheaf of papers 
and magazines (nothing cheaper than sixpence), 
and pulled up the window with an air which 
made the girl feel that he really was an out-of- 
the-common fine fellow after all. 


THE MONEY SENSE 83 

And it lasted — well, for several months. It 
was as if a glamour was over her, and under its 
influence she altered strangely. All her ideals 
of life seemed to have undergone an utter and 
complete change. Ian’s friends, Ian’s ways, 
Ian’s views of life all became Angelique’s. Her 
outlook upon the world was totally different ; 
she began to parade the superiority of things 
bought in the City over kindred articles pur- 
chased at the West End. 

Their first home was in Maida Vale, and 
Angelique extolled that quarter of London as if 
nobody with even a limited gleam of under- 
standing could, by any chance, of their own free 
will, entertain the idea of choosing a house 
elsewhere. The first time that Gwyn came up 
to stay with her she expatiated on the delights 
and conveniences of Maida Vale with a fluency 
which reminded Mrs. Torville quite painfully of 
the mother she had left at home at Beech Croft. 

‘ It’s so open and airy,’ she explained, as she 
showed Gwyn over the house. 

It was both open and airy, situate in one of 
those long, not to say dreary, avenues which run 
like rays of a star from the church where the 
buses stop. The houses were not detached, but 
they were roomy, handsome domiciles, decorated 
in the latest fashion which was the fashion 


84 


THE MONEY SENSE 


among house-builders, with each a tiny conser- 
vatory and a little enclosed square of private 
ground leading to an extensive common garden. 

Under Angelique’s direction, and by the aid of 
Ian Ingram’s careful financial mind, the house 
soon began to assume a finished aspect. Angel- 
ique was nothing if not up to date, and In- 
gram was nothing if not a bargain-hunter, and 
between the two the house quickly grew into a 
model of its peculiar genre. To Gwyn it looked 
fine and unaccustomed, but Angel ique had not 
visited among the tribe of the Israels for no- 
thing. Gwyn experienced a continual desire to 
ask ‘why?’ but her instinct told her to crush 
the desire down with a merciless hand. For to 
her simple, refined, provincial mind, many things 
looked strangely out of place. There were 
pictures set on the wall crossways, and bits of 
drapery nailed over them in an opposite direction, 
so as to balance the want of equilibrium ; Chinese 
mandarins’ cast-off garments were impaled against 
the conventionally modern European wall-papers 
like the spread eagles of the Imperial arms of 
Russia ; little palms stood in gaudy pots on the 
much bedraped mantel-shelves, and in many 
other sunless and airless parts of the well- 
darkened rooms where no green thing could 
possibly live. Cheap modern Dresden, Ian 


THE MONEY SENSE 85 

Ingram’s hard-won bargains, consorted cheek 
by jowl with old English pottery and the latest 
design in Danieli’s Venetian glass. Rugs were 
thrown here, art squares there, cushions littered 
the couches, and Liberty silk was frothed about 
in patches, chenille monkeys climbed up the 
curtains, and the flower-pots in the little conser- 
vatory were all decorously tied up with silken 
sashes. To Gwyn it was all very oppressive and 
stuffy, like the manners and customs of the 
visitors who came crowding in on first and third 
Sunday afternoons. It was all very Hebraic, 
very Oriental, but strangely unpleasant ! 

It was the same with the table too ; even there 
Gwyn found an element of strangeness. Ian 
Ingram was a member of the Reformed Jews, 
and a lax one at that ; but yet he was a Jew, 
always a Jew”, with all a Jew’s characteristics 
and instincts most strongly developed. The 
little meannesses of his sordid nature showed 
themselves in matters relating to food with a 
plainness which was appalling to his Christian 
sister-in-law. He was most particular to have 
Kosher-meat, but he did not in the least mind 
cheating the butcher over the price of it. It was 
the same in everything, and Angelique’s highest 
praise of a man nowadays seemed to consist 
merely of a tribute to his business capacity. 


86 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘True, he is not much to look at,’ she said, in 
answer to a remark of Gwyn’s concerning a 
visitor who had just left them, ‘ and, of course, 
he has made himself what he is by his own 
efforts, but Ian says he’s the sharpest man in 
the city, and would cheat the Devil out of his 
teeth in half an hour.’ 

‘I wonder you care to have him here,’ Gwyn 
ventured to remark. 

‘ I wouldn’t,’ returned Angelique simply, ‘but 
he is so useful for card-parties. I always go 
partners with him.’ 

After this, Gwyn went home, and Angelique 
was left to live the new wonderful life which 
had so completely severed her from even the 
associations of that old, simple, dull existence in 
which clean muslin and dusters had contributed 
most largely to the charm of the household. 
And, for a time, nothing in particular hap- 
pened. 

Then Angelique began to have trouble with her 
servants. They objected to Jewish ways, and 
kicked against the continual pricks of Jewish 
customs. One left after another, until Angelique 
was in despair, and finally appealed to her husband 
to help her out of the difficulty. ‘ You know we 
cannot go on like this,’ she said to him one morn- 
ing while they were at breakfast. ‘ Every day 


THE MONEY SENSE 87 

the difficulty seems to get more and more pro- 
nounced. Can’t we get Jewish servants?’ 

‘ I don’t believe so. Our people don’t care for 
service,’ said he carelessly. 

‘ Then we had better give up living so strictly,* 
said Angelique. ‘ I’m sure its all intensely silly i 
Why on earth shouldn’ t you cook meat one day 
the same as another? It has always been good 
enough for me ’ 

‘That’s out of the question,’ said he promptly. 
‘ I am quite lax enough as it is. My governor 
would cut me off to a dead certainty, and Bennie 
will naturally do everything he can to foster the 
feeling against you.’ 

‘ What feeling ?’ 

‘ Against your being a Christian.’ 

‘ But I thought your people were pleased at 
your marriage,’ she exclaimed. ‘ Why, Ian, you 
know they were, as pleased as Punch .’ 

‘Yes, in a sense, but not in other ways. 
They’re made to feel it, you bet. You’d better 
offer the cook a couple of pounds a year more. I 
daresay it’s only a try-on for something of that 
kind.’ 

So Angelique offered the lady in the kitchen an 
increase of wages if she would remain in her 
place. It was all against her instincts, but she 
was worn out by a long succession of servants of 


88 


THE MONEY SENSE 


all sorts, and let her pride go by the wall. To her 
surprise, Mrs. Grubb informed her that it was not 
a question of wages. 

‘ I was never one to stand out about wages if 
the place was a liberal one,’ she said. ‘ I find no 
fault in that way, and I like you. Mum, as a 
missus. But I don’t like Jewish ways, and I can’t 
live in the same house as Millicent. If you like 
to get rid of Millicent, I’ll stay on with pleasure.’ 

‘ And why don’t you like Millicent?’ Angeli- 
que asked in mild surprise, for Millicent was a 
parlour maid who had been with her a couple of 
months and had given her untold satisfaction. 

‘Her and me don’t mix,’ replied Mrs. Grubb, 
in an oracular tone. 

‘I’ll speak to your master about it,’ said 
Angelique. 

‘ Then,’ returned Mrs. Grubb promptly, ‘ I 
may as well consider my time as being up on the 
28 th.’ 

To this Angelique made no reply, but she 
thought over it during the day, so much so, that 
she was almost prepared for finding that Ian 
would take the contrary side when, the dinner 
over, she disclosed Mrs. Grubb’s decision to him. 
Still, his frank astonishment in some sense 
reassured her. 

‘Not a question of money!’ he exclaimed. 


THE MONEY SENSE 89 

‘ Why, what an old fool she must be. Then what 
is it a question of?’ 

‘ Of Millicent, ’ answered Angelique. 

‘ Of Millicent ! What about her? Surely, 
she's all right. ’ 

‘7 thought so,’ said Angelique, ‘but Mrs. 
Grubb says she won’t stop unless Millicent goes.’ 

‘I’d see her at the devil first,’ Ian Ingram 
blurted out. 

‘ What difference can it make to you ?’ asked 
Angelique coldly. 

His reply was prompt enough. ‘ Not the very 
least in the world. What difference can any of 
your servants make to me ? But Millicent is a 
first-class parlour-maid, isn’t she?’ 

‘ Oh yes.’ 

‘Well, old Grubb isn’t by any means first- 
class. At a pinch we can always get in a cook, 
however badly we may be off, but we can’t get 
in a parlour-maid. Millicent gives a certain 
chic to the house. I can tell you, ever so many 
people have spoken of her to me. And to get 
rid of her to please an old cat like Grubb seems 
too silly and weak-minded.’ 

Thus primed, Angelique the following day con- 
veyed the news to Mrs. Grubb that she would be 
expected to vacate her place on the 28 th of the 
month. ‘Your master and I both feel that it 


90 


THE MONEY SENSE 


would be very unjust to Millicent to send her 
9.way for no fault,’ she ended. 

Mrs. Grubb snorted. ‘ Very well, Mum,’ she 
remarked, tossing her head in the air, ‘ all I can 
say is I ’opes as you’ll never find Millicent out. 
But I’ve no grudge again’ you. Mum; and for 
your own sake, I’d advise you to keep your eyes 
open and see what’s going on under your very 
nose.’ 

‘ I think you are ill-natured,’ said Angelique, 
in a tone of rebuke. ‘ You ought not to forget 
that Millicent has her living to earn just as you 
have. ’ 

‘There’s different ways of earning a living,’ 
retorted Mrs. Grubb, with significance. 

Angelique, however, walked out of the kitchen 
without discussing the subject further. Still, she 
did for a few days keep her eye very sharply on 
Millicent ; but finding no fault in her, she con- 
cluded that the older woman had been solely 
actuated by feelings of malice. ‘ They are all 
like that,’ her thoughts ran. ‘ Scratch a Russian, 
and you’ll find a Tartar. Ay, and scratch a 
servant, and you’ll find a traitor. And, after all, 
she did not say so very much. It was what she 
implied that made me suspicious. ’ 

By this time Angelique had been married more 
than six months! She was fond of saying that 


THE MONEY SENSE 


9 ^ 


she and Ian had quite settled down into old 
married people. They lived, in some sense, inde- 
pendent lives. For one thing, they followed dif- 
ferent religions — at least, he followed the Jewish 
religion, and was apparently fairly regular in his 
attendance to the ceremonials of his faith. 
Angelique ostensibly belonged to the Established 
Church, which in this case simply meant that she 
did not conform to the religion of her husband. 

At this time she had fallen into very delicate 
health, for there was a prospect of a baby by 
and by. Angelique began to lose heart a little, 
her sleep was broken, her appetite capricious, 
her nerves a good deal overwrought. In addition 
to this strain upon her, she was not a little 
worried about her debts. On that terrible and 
never-to-be-forgotten day when she had made 
such a hideous failure of her trial 7naiinee^ she 
had confessed to Gwyn that she owed one way 
and another over five hundred pounds. Now 
when she had promised to marry Israel Isaacs 
she had felt her situation to be such that she 
could not afford to run the risk of losing this 
chance of clearing herself. Therefore, she had 
been afraid, positively afraid to tell him the full 
amount of her indebtedness. She had for that 
reason put the figure at three instead of five 
hundred pounds; and, true to his bond, he had on 


92 


THE MONEY SENSE 


their -wedding day presented her -with bank-notes 
for that amount. At the time it had seemed to 
Angelique as if she could never have another care 
in the -world; and on their return to London, she 
had promptly sent oiSf cheques to every person to 
-whom she -was in debt, excepting G-wyn, that is 
to say. But -with the best intentions in the 
-world, five hundred pounds cannot be paid with 
three, and Angelique was not strong enough to 
use the whole of the money for the purpose for 
which it had been intended. She could not resist 
using just a little for small personal luxuries for 
herself, and taking a little more for buying odds 
and ends for the new house. She felt that she 
was really acting very honestly to send her tailor 
a cheque for fifty pounds, although his total bill 
was three times as much; and when she went to 
order a new dress, which she could have done 
very well without, she could not resist the per- 
suasions of the manager to order a couple more 
dresses, the cost of the three bringing the bill up 
to just its original standpoint. It was the same 
everywhere. Until the entire sum was exhausted, 
she kept nibbling at it for illegitimate purposes 
instead of using it to reduce her liabilities; and 
as she was plunged into a rich and rather 
common Jewish set, wherein money was the 
hall-mark, her temptation to increase her debts 


THE MONEY SENSE 


93 


and outshine all the Jewesses of her acquaintance 
became quite irresistible. Once launched on that 
course, and with no wholesome fear of her 
mother’s volubility to keep a check upon her, 
she trod the road to ruin right royally. She 
dressed like a courtesan and carried herself like 
an empress, and obliging tradespeople of all kinds 
flattered and fawned upon her, and the while the 
bills throve and grew apace, and Mrs. Ian Ingram 
would, if an opportunity had been given, have 
made as pretty a case of bankruptcy as has ever 
made copy for the morning and evening papers! 

But the end was not yet 1 


CHAPTER IX 

Mr. and Mrs. Ian Ingram sat at breakfast 
very early one morning. Breakfast was always 
an abnormally early meal with them, and Angeli- 
que usually came down in good time for it. She 
had indeed started her married life with a resolute 
intention of under any circumstances being 
late for it or of indulging her natural inclination 
to be still snoozing among her pillows, leaving 
her spouse to cater for himself as best he could. 
To do her full justice, she had carried out this 
resolution very bravely, and but very seldom was 
Ian Ingram left to the ministrations of the excel- 
lent Millicent. Nevertheless, in spite of her 
praiseworthy desires, the hideous inconveniences 
of marriage proved sometimes too much for her, 
and the extremely delicate health, which was 
the result of her condition, occasionally made it 
impossible for her to carry out her good inten- 
tions in their entirety. 

On this morning, however, Angelique had torn 
herself from her comfortable bed in extra good 

94 


THE MONEY SENSE 


95 


time. I use the word ‘ torn ’ because, of a truth, 
the process had been one of real self-sacrifice. 
She was feeling wretchedly ill, dissatisfied with 
herself, her life, her house, and every person and 
thing connected with her. But she had dressed 
with care and a full consciousness of how drawn 
and haggard her face was, how pinched about 
the nose, how hollow as to the eyes. She had 
arrayed herself in a particularly dainty breakfast 
gown of heliotrope cashmere, much be-trimmed 
with coarse string-coloured lace, a simple and 
elegant garment which had cost seven guineas 
in Regent Street, but which did not in the least 
conceal the change in her figure. ‘ Ugh ! You — 
thing! ’ she had cried to her own reflection, as 
she turned away from her dressing-table. But 
no one would have guessed it as she sat at the 
head of her table that morning. She looked 
delicate, what is called interesting, and she 
smiled at Ian as if she had not a care nor an 
ungratified wish in the world. 

‘ What time shall you be home for dinner, Ian?’ 
she asked, when she had poured out his coffee. 

‘ Oh, the usual time,’ he answered. 

‘We have to go to the Montagus’ to-night,’ 
she said. The Montagus were some very rich 
people whom they had not known long, and 
their real name was Levy. 


96 THE MONEY SENSE 

‘ What time ?’ he asked. 

‘Any time after ten; I wouldn’t go too early. 
Dinner at eight, then ?’ 

‘ Yes, that’ll suit me right enough,’ he rejoined. 

‘Very well. By the way, Ian, are you very 
busy to-day ?’ 

‘ Pretty well — why ?’ he asked. 

‘ I wondered if you would look in and see that 
carved oak dresser I saw at Lyon’s yesterday.’ 

‘ What do you want it for ?’ 

‘ To fill that recess. ’ 

‘ But it won’t match the Chippendale things.’ 

‘ That won’t matter. I like things like that 
mixed,’ she said. 

‘ What did they ask for it ?’ 

‘ Twenty-five pounds.’ 

‘ Offer him ten.’ 

‘ I wish you’d go. You always make a better 
bargain than I do. Lyon knows I’m not used to 
beating people down.’ 

‘ Then the sooner you learn the better,’ said he, 
with a laugh. 

‘ You might go, Ian,’ persuasively. 

‘ How many kisses will you give me if I do ?’ 

‘ I — I — don’t like selling my kisses, ’ Angelique 
cried impulsively. 

‘ What — not even to me ?’ 

‘ No — not even to you,’ bravely. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


97 


‘ But how am I to know you won’t want to 
start furnishing entirely in oak ? You know you 
don’t really want that dresser at all.’ 

‘ Oh yes, I do. I want it dreadfully, awfully, 
horribly. You don’t half know how much,’ she 
protested. ‘ I keep picking up bits of china here 
and there. I bought a perfect old Worcester 
plate yesterday for eight shillings, and I’ve 
nowhere to put it.’ 

‘That’s all very well, but why buy old 
Worcester plates ? You don’t want them, you’ve 
no need for them, and we are spending a fearful 
lot of money without that.’ 

‘ Bnt you wouldn’t deny me a little hobby like 
gathering a few cheap pots together ?’ 

‘ But eight shillings for a plate isn’t cheap,’ he 
persisted. ‘ I could understand your getting a 
new tea-service, whole and sound, and the latest 
fashion — but these old things ’ 

‘ But you can’t put new china in your rooms,’ 
cried Angelique, in a much mortified tone, and 
with the tears starting readily into her eyes. 

‘ Well — well — if it pleases you to buy a lot of 
second-hand china, pray do so,’ he exclaimed 
hastily, for he was a soft-hearted person, and 
really fond of Angelique, so that it had hurt him 
to know that he had run the risk of bringing 
tears into her eyes. 


7 


98 THE MONEY SENSE 

‘ And you’ll go to Lyon’s ?’ said Angelique, 
choking down her mortification, and taking full 
advantage of the flag of truce. 

‘I’ll see — if I’ve time,’ he said. ‘But I am 
most fearfully busy to-day. I won’t promise.’ 

‘ But you’ll go, I know, ’ said Angelique, rising 
as he did, and going close to him. He was not 
so tall as she was, and she looked overwhelmingly 
large as she stood there. ‘ Dear Ian, ’ she said, 
laying her hands on his shoulders and kissing him 
half a dozen times, ‘ you are awfully good to me, 
dear. You always do what I want in the end.’ 

So Ian Ingram went away, and Angelique sat 
down again at the table, thinking how she could 
most profitably spend the hours which would pass 
between then and dinner-time. When she had 
finished the meal, she took the newspaper to the 
window and sat down to read it. She never 
read any paper except the Morning Post^ which 
was one highly pleasing to her ambitious nature. 
Millicent came to clear the breakfast-table while 
she was sitting there; and looking up once or 
twice, Angelique noticed that the girl seemed to 
have a very heavy cold upon her. 

‘You’ve got a very bad cold, Millicent?’ 
Angelique said at last. 

* Yes, I have, M’m,’ said Millicent, feeling for 
her handkerchief. 


•? c. 


THE MONEY vSENSE 


99 


‘Go and use some of my eucalyptus at once,’ 
said Angelique. ‘ Pour a little into the palm of 
your hand and snuff it up. It will do wonders 
for you.’ 

‘Thank you very much, M’m,’ said Millicent. 

After the girl had left the room, Angelique 
noticed a piece of paper lying on the floor; and, 
being of an extremely tidy nature, especially in 
small things, she put the Morning Post down 
and picked it up. 

‘Really, Millicent is getting quite careless,’ 
her thoughts ran, as she sat down again. ‘ I 
suppose it’s always the same with these very 
chic parlour-maids; they hate all kinds of house- 
work. Still, she really ought to look round a 
room and see she has left nothing untidy about.’ 

She took up the paper again and began to read 
it, and presently she laid it down, her thoughts 
once more with the carved oak dresser which 
she felt sure Ian would succeed in getting for 
her. She would have it to stand there in that 
recess, and she would deck it with all the old 
china she could get together. Of course, she 
had not nearly enough, but still there was already 
enough to make a fair show, and she would pick 
it up bit by bit and why^ what was the mean- 

ing of this? 

In her day-dreams about the old oak dresser, 


lOO 


THE MONEY SENSE 


she had absently unfolded the sheet of paper 
which Millicent had left by mistake upon the 
floor. It was a sheet of her own notepaper, 
with her monogram in one corner and the address 
of the house neatly printed in red in the one 
opposite. And written on it in Ian’s hand- 
writing was this astounding order — 

‘ To Messrs. Paley & Todd, Regent Street. 

Be good enough to supply Miss Page with any 
goods she may select to the value of ;^20. 

Ian Ingram.’ 

Angelique stared at the letter as if she could 
not believe what she saw written there. ‘ Supply 
Miss Page — to the value of ;^20.’ And who in 
the world was Miss Page, and how came Ian to 
be supplying Miss Page or Miss Anybody else 
with goods to the value of anything? Then it 
flashed across her mind that Millicent’s name 
was Page, of course. She had meant to call her 
Page, but had preferred to use her Christian 
name lest people should think she had started 
a page-boy, a buttons. So that was the little 
game, was it ? That was why Ian grudged her 
spending a few paltry shillings on a fad like old 
china, when her only desire for it was to make 
/its house look more chic! Well, two could play 
at such a game, oh yes. Ian was fond of saying 


THE MONEY SENSE 


lOI 


that no one could get over him, that he was a 
Jew — ‘but /,’ ran Angelique’s angry thoughts, 
‘ am something more difficult to tackle than a 
Jew. Ian shall find out what it is to pit himself 
against an outraged woman. ’ 

Yet, in spite of her anger, her fury, she hid the 
paper away in her desk and locked it securely. 
And presently, when Millicentcame in, ostensibly 
to fetch something from the sideboard, she found 
her mistress still indolently occupied with the 
Morning Post, She watched the girl closely all 
the same, and saw that she cast an anxious 
glance about the room, and Mrs. Ingram gave 
a bitter, smothered laugh as Millicent went out 
in unmistakable disappointment. ‘ The young 
lady is uneasy,’ she said to herself. ‘ She cannot 
think what she has done with the precious 
order. ’ 

No ordinary words will adequately describe 
the tumult of feelings which passed through 
Angelique’s mind that never-to-be-forgotten 
morning. She felt baffled, enraged, upset, hurt, 
and surprised, all by turns. She remembered 
what Mrs. Grubb, the departed cook, had said — 
‘ I only ’ope you may never find Millicent out.’ 
She felt outraged that she, a Christian woman of 
good parentage, had given herself body and soul — 
yes, body and soul, that was the worst of it — to 


102 THE MONEY SENSE 


this Jew, who had scorned her so much, valued 
her so little, that he had deliberately arranged 
an affair with her servant, her serving-maid. A 
great scorn filled her whole soul, and the first 
bitter heart-pang which she had felt since her 
marriage came to add to her suffering then. For 
the first time she thought of her old love Gustave 
Maynard ; for the first time since she had borne 
her new name she recalled him with a mighty 
regret. If only Gustave had been true, if only 
he had been brave, brave enough to risk poverty 
for her sake, all this could never have happened. 
She would never have known the fever and fret 
of a Eondon life, of a London failure, of a marriage 
of ways and means. And then, just as she was 
on the point of melting into a flood of blessed 
tears, which would have brought her relief, 
which would have washed the greater part of 
her heartache away, a realisation of what was 
suddenly came to her, a remembrance that she 
was Israel Isaacs’ wife., the mother of his unborn 
child. 

In a moment her tears were dried at the 
fountainhead, her eyes blazed and burned like 
fires of living coal, her whole soul rose up and 
loathed herself and him, and the little life bound 
up with her own most intensely of all. She got 
up and paced about the handsome room, up and 


THE MONEY SENSE 


103 


down, to and fro, as if she were trying to beat 
her fury into the Persian carpet which covered 
the floor. Oh, she was so angry, so hurt. It 
would have been bad at any time, even if she had 
been given to quarrelling with Ian, if she had 
been bad and disagreeable to him ; but when she 
could only look back and recall how, over and 
over again, she had sacriflced her own inclina- 
tions to his, how she had suffered from the pains 
and penalties of continuing the race, his race, 
how she had identified herself with his people, 
his set, had visited almost exclusively among 
Jews, and they not of the best, how she had 
practically given up her own friends, and to a 
certain extent turned her back upon her own 
people, and for such an end as this — well, 
Angelique could have thrown herself down upon 
the floor and wailed aloud in her grief and her 
despair. 

But even in the face of a shock and dire grief, 
a morning cannot last for ever. In time Millicent 
came to lay the table for lunch, and her mistress 
went upstairs and mechanically made her toilet 
for the afternoon, as was her custom. 

‘ Open a small bottle of champagne, Millicent,’ 
she said when she was seated at table; ‘ I don’t 
feel very well.’ 

Millicent opened the champagne as she was 


104 


THE MONEY SENSE 


bidden, and asked in rather a tremulous voice if 
there was anything else that she could get. 
Angelique replied in the negative, and then 
looking keenly at Millicent, remarked that she 
was looking very ill. ‘ What is the matter, 
Millicent?’ she asked. Her self-possession was 
really wonderful. She was very pale, but at 
such a time that was not remarkable; her 
manner was perfectly composed, and not much 
more chilly than usual. Angelique had always a 
somewhat distant tone towards her inferiors. 

When she put the direct question to Millicent, 
the girl blushed a vivid scarlet from her chin to 
the roots of her hair, and she replied, with some 
signs of confusion, that she believed she had 
taken cold — that was all. 

Angelique smiled sardonically as the door 
closed once more behind the servant-maid; but 
while speaking to her, she had maintained a 
perfectly calm demeanour, and quietly gave her 
some simple advice as to the best course for 
any one with a severe cold to take. It was 
strange, but even in the midst of her trouble, 
she seemed to find a grim kind of amusement 
in playing with the erring Millicent as a cat 
plays with a wretched little mouse. 

Like many other well-to-do people in London, 
Ian Ingram had not cared to set up a stable 


THE MONEY SENSE 


105 

of his own, but he indulged Angelique in a 
victoria and a brougham jobbed by the year from 
an adjacent livery stable. Angelique had that 
day ordered the victoria for a quarter before 
three o’clock; and when it came round, she 
bethought her of one or two shops she needed 
to visit, and of one or two afternoons at which she 
had promised to put in an appearance. The idea 
of sending the carriage away and of remaining 
indoors never occurred to her. She went upstairs 
and got ready to go out, making her outdoor 
toilet with great care. And then, just as she 
was drawing on her gloves, an idea struck her, a 
thought so audacious, so bold, so startling, that it 
fairly took her breath away. She would take 
lan^s order to Paley & Todd^ and she would 
spend the twenty pounds there^ leaving them 
to think that she was the Miss Page indicated 
in the order. 

From her earliest youth, almost from her baby 
days, Angelique had been utterly and entirely a 
creature of impulse and enthusiasm. In that 
moment, of a truth the gravest situation of her 
whole life, she never hesitated for one instant. 
She went straight downstairs and to her desk in 
the window of the pleasant dining-room, and, 
unlocking the drawer in which she had laid 
the order, she took it out and put it in an 


io6 THE MONEY SENSE 


envelope matching the paper on which it was 
written. 

‘ You need not put me into the carriage,’ she 
said to Millicent, who held the door open for her. 
‘Stay within doors. Give me the rug.’ 

She took the light rug, with its smart em- 
broidered monogram, from the girl, and walked 
to the carriage by herself, settling herself with 
much deliberation and care. ‘ Go to Buszard’s,’ 
she said aloud. 

But from Buszard’s she drove down to Paley 
& Todd’s, and entered the shop with the air of a 
queen. 

‘ Your pleasure, madam ?’ was the question 
which greeted her. 

‘ I have an order here from Mr. Ian Ingram to 
the value of twenty pounds,’ she said calmly. 

‘ Certainly, madam,’ said the stately shop- 
walker, whose manner instantly underwent a 
quick change, which would have done justice to a 
variety entertainer. ‘ Mr. Ingram was here this 
morning to advise us of having given it — on his 
way to the city, I daresay,’ 

Angelique looked at him. A look can express 
a great deal, and hers did. The stately gentle- 
man shivered a little, and he promptly relapsed 
into his former manner of excessive deference. 
‘ And your pleasure, madam ?’ he asked. 


THE MONEY SENSE 107 

‘ I will look at some mantles,’ said Angelique. 

Eventually she chose a grey mantle of fine 
cloth and silk, profusely ornamented with silver 
trimmings, a garment which could only have 
been worn in a carriage and by an elegant 
woman. ‘ I will take it with me,’ she said, in a 
tone which admitted of no question. 

The elegant shopwalker remarked to one of 
the young gentlemen belonging to the establish- 
ment that Ian Ingram must be pretty well off. 

‘ Fancy his getting hold of a splendid-looking 
woman like that and putting her off with a 
twenty-pound order. What queer creatures 
women are — and in her condition too.’ 

Meantime, Angelique went on with the pro- 
gramme which she had laid down for herself, and 
arrived home in ample time to dress for dinner. 
By that time she had lost all outward trace of 
the storm through which she had passed earlier 
in the day ; and when her husband returned 
home, she met him with a calm face and a 
manner which had nothing at all unusual about 
it. As a matter of fact, he went straight to her 
in her bedroom. 

‘I’ve got your dresser,’ he announced. 
‘They’re going to send it to-morrow morning. 
You were quite right about it — it’s a very hand- 
some thing.’ 


io8 THE MONEY SENSE 

Angelique put out a hand and held up her 
face to be kissed, all just as usual. ‘ How good 
of you !’ she said. ‘ And what did you get it 
for?’ 

‘ What do you think ?’ 

‘ Not for ten pounds.’ 

‘Well, no, but for fifteen pounds ten. Lyon 
stood out for twenty pounds, but I told him to 
take it or leave it at fifteen pounds, and he 
gave way, provided I’d pay the porterage 
home.’ 

‘That was immensely clever of you,’ said 
Angelique, quite admiringly. ‘ I shall love to 
set it all out and arrange all my old pots 
upon it.’ 

‘ I am sure you will, dearest. Well, I must go 
and dress. I’m ever so late as it is. You’ve 
been out, of course ?’ 

‘ Oh yes. I did some shopping and an 
afternoon or two,’ said Angelique indifier- 
ently. 

She watched the two very closely during 
dinner, but in the manner of neither could she 
detect anything at all unusual. She realised 
though, that while she went to fetch her cloak, 
and put the finishing touches to her toilet, 
Millicent made it her business to be in the 
dining-room; and when she came down, she found 


THE MONEY SENSE 109 

the girl just leaving the room, and Ian Ingram 
sitting at the table with a half-uneasy expression 
upon his face. He jumped up when he perceived 
her. 

‘ Is the carriage here yet?’ he asked. 

‘ Not yet, I think,’ said Angelique, whose 
heart was filled with an unholy joy as she 
perceived that he had been told of the mysteri- 
ous loss. Then she added carelessly, ‘ Millicent 
will let us know when it comes.’ 

She wandered to the window, and stood look- 
ing at the recess which was to be filled the next 
day by the old oak dresser. ‘ My recess will be 
charming,’ she remarked, in a tone of enthusiasm 
which completely deceived Ian. 

‘ Oh yes, I daresay,’ absently. 

Angelique turned round. ‘ Why, Ian, what is 
the matter? Has anything gone wrong?’ she 
asked innocently. 

Ian Ingram shook himself out of a brown 
study. ‘Wrong? No, no, of course not. What 
should go wrong ? I was thinking of a matter of 
business, that’s all.’ 

‘Oh, business!’ said Angelique carelessly. 
‘ By the way, Ian, you are going to Mrs. Morton 
Collingwood’s garden-party with me to-morrow, 
are you not?’ 

‘Yes, I suppose I must. I can’t leave the 


no THE MONEY SENSE 


office till half-past four though. I’ve got an 
appointment at four.’ 

‘ That will do quite well. I hate going early 
anywhere.’ 

‘You like to make an entrance,’ he said, 
laughing. 

‘ Always,’ said Angelique. 


CHAPTER X 

The following day was Millicent’s afternoon 
out. Angelique realized that she was out by the 
fact that the housemaid waited at dinner. ‘ Is 
Millicent out, or is her cold worse ?’ she asked. 

‘ Millicent is out, M’m,’ replied the housemaid. 

‘ It was very foolish of her to go out with such 
a cold,’ said Angelique. ‘She could have had 
another day later. I expect she will be quite ill.’ 

‘ Has Millicent a cold ?’ asked Ian, who knew 
quite well exactly what kind of health Millicent 
was enjoying at that moment. 

‘ A shocking cold,’ said Angelique briefly. 

They were dining an hour earlier than usual, 
as they were going to a theatre; and when they 
returned home, the entire household was in bed, 
for Ian had insisted upon taking Angelique to 
have some supper when the theatre was over. 
So nothing more was said about Millicent, and 
Ian Ingram did not know what had happened 
until the next morning when he entered the 
dining-room. 


Ill 


112 THE MONEY SENSE 

Now when Millicent had told him that she 
had lost the order on Paley & Todd’s, he had 
taken it for granted that she had inadvertently 
destroyed it, and had taken an opportunity of 
writing a second order. As any business man 
would do, he had added a footnote to the effect 
that this order was to cancel one of a previous 
date, inadvertently destroyed or mislaid. Judge 
then of his surprise when, on coming downstairs, 
Millicent met him with the news that on pre- 
senting the order at Paley & Todd’s she had 
been astounded by receiving the information 
that the first order had been presented, and that 
a lady purporting to be Miss Page had bought 
goods to the full value of twenty pounds. 

‘ Nonsense! They must have made a mistake,’ 
said Ian Ingram incredulously. ‘ At any rate, 
you shall not suffer, Millicent. I will go in and 
see them about it, and arrange that you shall 
have your things anyhow.’ 

A few minutes later Angelique herself came 
into the room. Ian looked at her keenly, but 
she seemed so much as usual that he dismissed 
all idea from his mind that she had learned 
anything of the affair. 

He stopped his cab at Paley & Todd’s on his 
way to the city, and going in, found himself face 
to face with the stately shopwalker. ‘ Pray, 


what is this about the order I gave on you ?’ he 
asked, 

‘Well, sir, the lady came and got the goods,’ 
the shopwalker replied. 

‘ But what lady ? The lady they were intended 
for was the one who presented the second order.’ 

‘ I’m sure I am very sorry, Mr. Ingram, but 
the lady — or I should say, a lady — came during 
the afternoon of Tuesday, the day you had 
advised us that you had given an order upon us, 
and as we had no reason to doubt her identity, 
we supplied the goods.’ 

‘ Yes — yes — I know,’ impatiently. ‘ But who 
was the lady? That’s what I want to get at. 
What was she like ? What age — manner — appear- 
ance ?’ 

‘ Well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Ingram,’ said 
the shopwalker, ‘ I was rather surprised that 
such a lady should come with an order. She 
came in a carriage ’ 

‘A carriage!’ Ian Ingram gasped. He was 
beginning to grasp the truth. ‘ What kind of a 
carriage — what liveries ?’ 

‘ A single victoria — golden-brown liveries. She 
was tall, with a very dignified manner; and, 
if I mistake not, she was in an interesting 
condition — indeed, I may say very interesting,’ 
and he smirked in a knowing way, as if he was 


THE MONEY SENSE 


114 

giving an unmistakable clue to the lady’s iden- 
tity, as in very truth he was. 

‘ Good God !’ ejaculated Ian Ingram. He was 
naturally a very dark and sallow man; but at the 
receipt of this bit of information, every shade of 
colour faded from his face, leaving it of a ghastly 
and livid hue. 

‘It was not the lady you expected, sir?’ 
asked the shopwalker. 

‘ It was — but, tell me,’ breaking the remark off 
sharply, ‘ what did she buy ?’ 

‘ A long grey cloak — a very handsome thing. ’ 

‘ All silver trimmings?’ 

‘Yes.’ 

Ian Ingram positively groaned. ‘ Well, there 
is nothing more to be said, and it can’t be 
helped. I may as well tell you the rest, because 
I don’t want it to be talked about. That was 
my wife. Good-day. I’ll send you a cheque 
later. ’ 

He went straight out of the shop and back to 
his cab, his mind all in a tumult, his nerves 
shaken, his head positively whirling with excite- 
ment. And yet, even in the midst of his annoy- 
ance and his vexation, he could not help thinking 
with intensest admiration of Angelique’s adroit- 
ness in promptly taking advantage of her oppor- 
tunity. ‘By Jove!’ his thoughts ran, ‘ what a 


THE MONEY SENSE 


115 

nerve she has, what a head, what pluck! As if 
a little rat like Millicent could ever be anything 
but a convenience to me,’ and then he lay back 
in the cab and langhed out aloud until the 
cabman opened the little door in the roof in 
sheer wonderment. 

During the rest of that day Ian Ingram went 
through many changes of feeling — vexation, 
dismay, irritation, and, running through all, that 
curious admiration for Angelique which was a 
totally new sensation to him. I don’t say that 
he had not admired Angelique immensely from 
the very first time that he had ever seen her. 
In a physical sense he admired her more than 
any woman he had ever seen, but this feeling 
was quite a different one. 

In a physical sense Angelique had been a 
terrible disappointment to him; for she was, like 
all enthusiasts, very easily ruffled, and she was 
strangely free from sensuality. For months past 
her health had been inconveniently delicate, 
and his ardour had therefore been considerably 
dimmed, and this accounted for the star of 
Millicent being in the ascendant. Not for a 
moment do I mean to imply that Ian Ingram was 
tired of Angelique; that he regretted having 
made her his wife ; or that he was any less proud 
of her than he had been at the time of their 


ii6 THE MONEY SENSE 


marriage; but he had drifted into relations with 
Millicent without any feeling that he was doing 
Angelique a wrong, almost indeed with a half 
sort of notion that he was doing her a kindness. 

Still, he felt that he must have the whole 
matter out with Angelique that night. She was 
dressed for dinner when he reached home, wear- 
ing a white tea-gown which trailed far behind 
her, and made her look more beautiful than he 
had ever seen her before. 

He said not a word till dinner was over, and 
Millicent had left them together. Then he 
braced himself up and said, ‘ By the way, 
Angelique, I have something to say to you.’ 

‘ Yes — I know you have,’ she replied steadily. 
‘ I have been waiting for three days to hear you 
say it.’ 

‘ Angelique,’ he burst out reproachfully, ‘ how 
could you do it ?’ 

‘Do it?’ she echoed; ‘do what? Pay you 
back in your own coin? I haven’t done that — 
yet.' 

‘ Pay me back ? No. I mean, how could you 
nurse this up for three whole days ? And how 
could you lower yourself by going to Paley & 
Todd’s with an order as if you were — were-—’ 

‘ A Millicent^ ’ put in Angelique, in a tone of 
concentrated contempt 


THE MONEY SENSE 


117 

‘Yes, a Millicent,’ he repeated passionately. 
‘If you wanted twenty pounds, God knows, 
you were welcome to it, or anything else that 
I had.’ 

‘I didn’t want twenty pounds particularly,’ 
said Angelique icily. ‘ I wanted that twenty 
pounds — any wife would have felt the same; the 
only difference is, that few others would have had 
the pluck to act up to their feelings. But now 
that you have broached the subject, Ian, what 
are you going to do ?’ 

‘ To do! What do you mean ?’ 

‘ You don’t expect me to go on as things are — 
to live in the same house with — your — mistress, 
and in my circumstances! Because if you 
do ’ 

‘ I expect nothing — I am going to do nothing,’ 
he said firmly. ‘ This is your house ; you do what 
you please in it. ’ 

‘ Millicent or I leave it,’ she said briefly. 

‘ That is as you please. You keep or dismiss 
your servants as you choose.’ 

But Angelique shook her head. ‘No, that 
won’t do. I refuse to dismiss Millicent. I have 
no fault to find with her as a servant. You will 
get rid of your mistress, or your wife will leave 
the house. ’ 

For a moment he looked at her. She was very 


ii8 THE MONEY SENSE 


pale, and looked wretchedly ill ; but her gaze was 
firm and unflinching, and her eyes so filled with 
disgust and contempt, that he fairly quailed 
beneath them. ‘And after?’ he said. The 
question forced itself through his lips without 
any intention on his part to ask it. 

Angelique still stared at him with her great 
wide-open eyes. ‘ After, ’ she said wonderingly. 

‘ Do you think that I shall forget this, put it 
aside as if it had never been ? Do you think that 
I, who am suffering now through you, intend to go 
on bringing little Jews into the world'.to add to 
your glory and your prestige ? You must have a 
very strange idea of women, of Christian women, 
at all events.’ 

It was the first time that she had ever used 
his race in any way as a taunt against him. She 
knew, as the words dropped out one by one like 
molten lead, that she was wrong, utterly wrong, 
to take advantage of it then; yet she went 
impulsively on, not caring in her great anger 
aud mortification how she ruthlessly trampled 
down the very foundations of her life’s happi- 
ness. 

Ian Ingram started up and caught hold of her 
hand. ‘ Angelique,’ he said, ‘you’re not going 
to leave me; you’re not going to set yourself 
apart from me; you’re not going to let a 


THE MONEY SENSE 


1 19 

miserable little thing like Millicent come in 
between us? Don’t say it — Angelique — my 
dearest ’ 

‘ Am I your dearest?’ she asked suddenly. 

‘ I swear before the God of my Fathers that 
you are,’ he asserted solemnly. ‘ I swear to you 
that Millicent is and has been nothing to me but a 
mere convenience. I don’t care a brass farthing 
for her. If you had been strong and well; I 
should never have looked at her. Is it likely ? 
What is there in Millicent to attract a man who 
is attracted by you ?’ 

‘ Then why mix yourself up with her at all ?’ 
she asked, in genuine amazement. 

‘ I’m only a man, ’ he said humbly. ‘ I — I — can- 
not help being as I am. You have been so ill, so 
ailing all these months, I felt it a cruelty to 
trouble you with any wishes of mine. I — I — 
thought it was kinder to — to ’ 

‘ To ruin a girl rather than inconvenience me,’ 
said Angelique, ending the sentence for him. 

‘ It’s very pretty, Ian, but a little thin, a little 
too thin.’ 

‘I did not ruin Millicent,’ he returned simply. 

‘ I did not seduce her.’ 

Angelique shuddered. ‘ And to think I have 
had this creature in my house; that I have 
shared out my husband with her; and you speak 


120 THE MONEY SENSE 


as if I ought to be very much obliged to her. 
Oh, it is too horrible, too loathsome, too utterly, 
horribly degrading.’ 

She broke down then, and began to cry weakly, 
piteously, and Ian Ingram stood by, not knowing 
what to do for the best, not knowing whether to 
take the bull by the horns; so to speak, and 
boldly kiss her into forgiving him, or whether to 
leave her alone until she had wept the worst pain 
of her trouble away. And while he was still 
hesitating between these two courses, the door 
opened, and Millicent came in, carrying the after- 
dinner coffee. 

The noise of the coffee cups made known to 
Angelique that Millicent was in the room. She 
dashed away her tears, and rising to her full 
height, pointed at her with a trembling hand. 

‘ Put that woman out of my presence,’ she said, 
in a terrible voice. 

‘Woman yourself,’ snapped Millicent, who, 
like a wolf in a lamb’s skin, showed her teeth the 
moment she was ruffled. 

‘Do you hear?’ said Angelique, speaking to 
her husband. 

‘ Leave the room,’ said he curtly to Millicent. 
Ian Ingram was the last man in the world to 
stand upon ceremony with an inferior, no matter 
what her relations with him might be. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


I2I 


‘ I ’aint going to be ordered about like a brute 
beast,’ returned Millicent, wbo, like all her class, 
loved a row down at the bottom of her heart. 

‘ Am I to speak twice ?’ demanded Angelique 
of Ingram. ‘ Put her out, I say.’ 

‘Then I won’t be put out,’ cried Millicent, 
dodging cleverly past Ingram, and addressing 
Angelique in a high, shrill voice of excessive 
insolence. ‘ Why should I for you ? I’m just as 
good as you are, and better. At all events, 
I’m not a common thief — yes, thief! Who 
went to Paley & Todd’s and stole twenty 
pounds? Yah!’ 

‘ Leave the room,’ thundered Ingram. 

‘I won’t leave the room,’ snarled Millicent; 
‘ and lay so much as a finger on me, and I’ll ’ave 
the law of you, so there! I’ll leave the ’ouse to- 
morrow morning, but not at ’er bidding. Bah! 
I’ve demeaned myself by stopping in it, which I 
should not have done, only ’twas as good as a play 
to watch ’er airs and graces. Delicate ’ealth — 
pooh! Other women ’as delicate ’ealth. I’m in 
the same sort of delicate ’ealth as ’er, and you 
know it; you ought to, anyway. But I’ve got to 
go on toil, toil, moil ’ 

‘ Will you get that woman out of this room ?’ 
said Angelique, in a tone of exasperated despera- 
ation. She was ghastly pale, and she swayed to 


122 THE MONEY SENSE 

and fro and from side to side like a drunken 
woman. 

Opposite stood Millicent,tall, slender, vixenish, 
spite graven on every line of her face, a hideous 
smile contorting her lips. Between them stood 
Ingram, shorter in stature than either, not know- 
ing what course to take, or what to do or say. 

‘Touch me if you dare,’ hissed Millicent. 

For a moment Angelique stood staring at her, 
her face working, her figure still swaying to and 
fro. Then she turned and fled from the room, 
leaving the field open and free. 

In a trice Millicent tore after her ; and Ingram, 
divining her intention, rushed after her into the 
hall. He gained the lowest step just as the tail 
of Angelique’ s white gown disappeared round the 
head of the stairs. Millicent sent a triumphant 
peal of laughter after her retreating mistress. 

‘Ah, ha! Ah, ha I I stayed you out . 

Yah!’ 

For one moment there was dead silence, 
Millicent, with a face like a ghost now that the 
sham was at an end, clung to the bannisters, 
and Ingram, biting his lips, was trying hard to 
keep his hands off her. Then, as they stood there 
glaring at one another, they heard the banging 
of Angelique’s bedroom door, and immediately 
scream, after scream, wild, piercing, hysterical 


THE MONEY SENSE 


123 

shrieks, rose upon the quiet air of the silent 
house. 

‘Before God in heaven,’ said Ian Ingram, 
between his set teeth to the half-fainting 
Millicent, ‘ if any harms comes to her, I’ll charge 
you with manslaughter. ’ 


CHAPTER XI 

Millicent left the house early the following 
day. She had a five minutes’ interview with its 
master before she left, an interview which to her 
was au extremely unsatisfactory one. He saw 
her in the library, as they called the small den 
especially devoted to his use, and bade her shut 
the door in a tone such as she had never heard 
from him before. 

‘ Here are your wages up to a month from to- 
day, ’ he said, in a hard business-like voice. ‘ And 
here is a cheque for ten pounds. The sooner you 
are out of this house the better for everybody 
concerned.’ 

‘ You don’t suppose you are going to get rid of 
me like this,’ Millicent began, in a voice of fury. 

‘ I am quite willing to provide for your child, if 
there is one, and to pay all reasonable expenses,’ 
said Ian Ingram, in a hard voice, and looking at 
her with a cold sneer on his sallow, strongly 

124 


THE MONEY SENSE 


125 


marked face. ‘ If you had behaved yourself pro- 
perly last night, you would have done much better 
for yourself. As it is, anything that I may do 
beyond what the law would compel will depend 
entirely upon whether you in any way annoy Mrs. 
Ingram or not.’ 

‘ She said things about me,’ Millicent began. 

‘ Mrs. Ingram had every right to do so, both in 
her capacity as my wife and as your mistress, ’ he 
said curtly. ‘ At all events, her name must be 
left out of any conversations between you and 
me now and for ever. You had better under- 
stand that clearly. Now go. You can send 
your address to my office ; you know where 
that is.’ 

He made a gesture towards the door ; and 
Millicent, for once in her life thoroughly cowed, 
shrank away without another word. Not that 
she was personally afraid of Ingram, or touched 
by the fact that her mistress was lying in ex- 
tremest danger upstairs. Millicent was one of 
those people who are afraid of nothing and of 
nobody. She knew the law of the land pretty 
well, as most servants do, and this was not the 
first time in her life that she had played an im- 
portant part in what is called a paternity case. 
But she did fear letting loose her hold of Ian 
Ingram. She did fear arousing his anger to such 


126 THE MONEY SENSE 


an extent as to make him allow her no more than 
the bare sum usually voted in such cases. So far 
as her mistress was concerned, she had shot her 
bolt, and she was not by any means sure that she 
had not overshot it — in such eyes as hers, the 
one unpardonable sin. So Millicent left Ange- 
lique’s house, her heart full of hatred, her whole 
soul concentrated on but one purpose — to bide her 
time, to wait, to be revenged. 

And Angelique? She, poor soul, was lying 
prostrate in her bed, taking little or no notice of 
those about her, only overwhelmed by a vast 
sense of illness and an equally appalling feeling of 
intense exhaustion. A nurse in the uniform of 
an institution was moving to and fro when Ian 
Ingram, having brought his interview with Milli- 
cent to an end, came up to see how Angelique 
was going on. He went up to the side of the 
bed, denuded now of its smart lace ‘ spread, ’ and 
stood looking down upon her, his eyes full of com- 
passion and pity, his whole countenance indica- 
tive of anxiety and distress. 

‘Mrs. Ingram is a little better,’ said the nurse, 
moving to the other side of the bed. 

Angelique opened her eyes. ‘ Is that you ?’ she 
asked feebly. 

Ian Ingram bent down. ‘ Yes — it is I. You 

are feeling better, my dearest ?’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


127 

‘Not much.’ Then, after a pause, ‘Is she 
gone ?’ 

‘ Yes.’ He was not by any means sure that 
Millicent had actually left the house, but a little 
deception more or less would not matter, and it 
was better that Angelique’s mind should be set 
at rest on the subject as soon as possible. 

Angelique did not speak for a little time. 
Then she asked in her faint voice whether Milli- 
cent had been rude, or if she had gone away 
quietly ? It seemed to him that she had forgotten 
the actual facts of the case; that she had no 
remembrance that she and Millicent were, in a 
sense, in the same boat, in the same situation ; 
and that he stood midway between the two. 

Ian Ingram bent down closer to her. ‘Don’t 
worry about her, my dearest,’ he said soothingly. 

‘ She will not trouble you again; she went away 
very quietly. I think she was frightened at 
what she had done. I really came up to ask you 
whether you would like to have any one sent for 
from home — your mother or Gwyn ?’ 

Angelique positively shuddered, and was in- 
stantly aroused into an appearance almost of 
animation, while her words told him very clearly 
that she had forgotten nothing. 

‘Not for the world!’ she exclaimed, in quite 
an energetic tone. ‘ I wouldn’t have mother 


128 THE MONEY SENSE 


coming here ferreting everything out and ex- 
plaining things for the world. If you have any 
love left for me, Ian, don’t suggest such a thing.’ 

‘If I have — oh, my dear,’ he broke out re- 
proachfully. 

The nurse had left them together, so that he 
had no need to guard his tongue on her account. 
Angelique closed her eyes again very wearily. 

‘ We won’t go into it all again,’ she said; ‘I 
never want to hear you mention her name again. 
We will try to forget it. .1 am very tired.’ 

She stayed very quietly among her pillows for 
a few minutes, Ian still holding her hand. Then 
she opened her eyes again and looked at him. 
‘Do you think I am going to die?’ she asked 
suddenly. 

He started perceptibly at her words. ‘ Oh, no, 
I don’t think so,’ he said hastily. 

‘Then don’t send for anybody,’ she said, with 
decision. 

And Angelique did not die. She was shattered 
in nerve and shaken in body; but after a few days 
of complete rest and quiet, she was able to leave 
her bed once more and to lie on the wide sofa by 
the window. And later she was able to move 
about, and then to go every day for a drive, with 
the devoted Ian always in attendance upon her. 
She was really very well contented at this time. 


THE MON.EY SENSE 


129 


It suited her sense of the eternal fitness of things 
that Ian should be ready for her sake to give up 
to her part of each day which was usually devoted 
to the sacred ‘City’! Her every little caprice 
was carefully studied, her every whim gratified. 
She was surrounded by costly flowers, had several 
new tea-gowns, and felt no small satisfaction in 
remembering that Millicent, who was in the same 
boat with her, would have to go through her time 
without any of these alleviations. I suppose it 
was natural or at least feminine that she should 
feel like this; but the truth must be confessed 
that she spared no pains to make herself charm- 
ing in her husband’s eyes, and for the simple 
reason that she did not wish him to think Milli- 
cent the more agreeable of the two. 

This state of things did not, however, last long. 
No woman in Angelique’s state of health can 
undergo the strain of shock so great and excite- 
ment so intense without suffering more than a 
temporary ill effect therefrom ; and Angelique, 
after a few weeks of apparent recovery, was 
stricken down once more, and this time the much 
dreaded catastrophe really happened. For after 
two days of excessive illness and extreme danger, 
a little dead child was brought into this world of 
sorrow, the babe whom she had once stigmatised 
to Ian as ‘ a little Whitechapel Jew.’ 


9 


130 


THE MONEY SENSE 


It seemed to harden Angelique. For days they 
did not dare to tell her that the child had died 
before it was born, and she believed that it was 
being kept away from her solely on account of 
her exhausted condition. Then, when she was 
able to speak again, she asked where her baby 
was, and how it was being fed ? 

‘I intended to nurse it myself,’ she said weakly. 

‘ My dear,’ replied the comfortable old monthly 
nurse, who had come up from the country speci- 
ally to attend her,’ ‘ you mustn’t worry about the 
baby — he is all right It’s you we’ve got to 
think of.’ 

* But how is he being fed ?’ Angelique persisted. 

‘Well, my dear, it’s very disappointing for 
you ,’ said the nurse, ‘ but you couldn’t possibly 
feed him — it was quite out of the question.’ 

‘ Can’t I see him ?’ 

‘ No, my dear, you just lie still and take all 
we ask you and get well,’ said the nurse. ‘ I’m 
sure your good gentleman has been well nigh 
distracted about you. My heart fair ached for 
him.’ 

Angelique would have laughed if she had not 
been so pitiably weak. As it was, she closed her 
eyes again with a faint smile curling her lips, 
and for ever so long she lay quite still without 
asking any more questions. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Presently, however, she spoke again. ‘ Gwyn 
— where’s Gwyn?’ she asked. 

‘Here, dear Angel,’ said Gwyn, coming softly 
out of the gloom. 

Angelique looked at her with a smile. ‘ Dear 
old Safety-Valve,’ she murmured, ‘ I wasn’t sure 
that it was you. So glad you’re here. ’ 

She closed her eyes again, leaving her hand in 
Gwyn’s. 

‘Gwyn,’ she said at last, ‘there’s something 
wrong with my baby. I know it — that old 
woman cannot deceive me.’ 

‘ Dear Angel,’ said Gwyn, ‘ your baby was a 
beautiful boy ’ 

‘ tVas,^ repeated Angelique sharply. 

‘ But the struggle was too much for him. You 
know you were very ill. ’ 

‘ And he is dead ?’ 

‘ My dear,’ said Gwyn very gently, ‘ he was 
born dead.’ 

She stopped short, dreading the effect of her 
disclosure on the pale girl before her. But for a 
long time Angelique did not speak; then, at last, 
she said very quietly, ‘ Perhaps it’s just as well!’ 

But, all the same, Angelique was hardened by 
the fact that her 'child had been born dead. Life 
was not the same to her after her confinement as 
it had been before, not even excepting that part 


13: 


THE MONEY SENSE 


of it which had come after the disclosures con- 
cerning Millicent. Often and often during the 
period of her convalescence, when Gwyn believed 
her to be sleeping, she was in reality brooding 
over the circumstances which had led to the 
untimely end of her firstborn. She regretted 
the babe with an intense, bitter, overwhelming 
regret. She recalled how she had spoken of it 
as ‘ a little Whitechapel Jew’ to the father who 
had wronged her, and sometimes she wondered 
if that was the reason why she had never seen 
it, her own child ? 

As she got slowly better these morbid feelings 
passed off a little, but her newly acquired hard- 
ness remained. Not in her personal intercourse 
with Ian ; for to him, having always in her mind 
that ‘ the creature ’ was still in that condition 
which excites interest and pity for even the 
most unworthy, she was invariably as charming 
and fascinating as she knew how to make herself. 
No, Angelique’s hardness consisted in going her 
own way more persistently than she had ever 
wished, or indeed dared, to do before the truth had 
come to light about Millicent. She never stopped 
now to consider whether she — that is to say, Ian 
— could afford a thing; if she wanted it, she had it* 
She gathered up old china with an avidity, and 
I may say a want of discrimination, which was 


THE MONEY SENSE 


133 


simply reckless; and having filled the carved 
oak dresser, she went off and bought another to 
match it. 

‘Hullo! another dresser?’ said Ian Ingram, 
when he first perceived the new acquisition. 

‘ Yes,’ said Angelique carelessly. ‘ I was 
obliged to have some place for my pots.* 

‘ Where did you get it ?’ 

‘ Of Lyon.’ 

‘ And you paid ?’ 

‘ The same as you did. I took a lesson from 
you. I said, “ I want my dresser matching, and 
at the same price. Take it or leave it, but as 
I’m no Jew, don’t haggle.” And, of course, 
being a sensible man of business, he took it, and 
I got my dresser. ’ 

‘ I wish you had let me get it for you,’ he said. 

‘ I could have made a better bargain probably. 
Will you have enough to fill it?’ he asked, not a 
little to the wonder of Gwyn, to whom this 
quiet acquiescence in a man was a new experi- 
ence. 

‘ Oh, no, but I shall pick up a few bits while I 
am at Beech Croft. By the way, Ian, I want 
you to give me some extra money just to spend 
on pots alone.’ 

‘Very well,’ good-humouredly. ‘ How much 
will do you ?’ 


134 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ A tenner, ’ said Angelique promptly. 

‘Very well, you shall have it,’ he replied. 
‘ But when you want anything like that again, 
let me get it for you.’ 

Gwyn stared. She could not help it. ‘ Do 
you know, Angel,’ she said an hour later, 
when Ian had gone out for an hour to the 
club, ‘ I don’t believe you half appreciate that 
husband of yours. He is wonderfully good to 
you.’ 

‘ Oh yes, I do,’ Angelique returned. ‘ What 
makes you think I don’t ?’ 

‘Well, you never so much as said “Thank 
you” for his promising you all that money to 
waste on old china. ’ 

‘ Ian understands me,’ said Angelique quietly. 

‘ But he is good,’ Gwyn went on. ‘ You are 
very fond of him now, Angel ?’ 

‘ Oh very,’ said Angelique drily, 

‘Angel,’ said Gwyn in a distressed tone, 
‘Angel, what is it? It’s not like you, dear — 
you — you — seem so different to what you used 
to be.’ 

Angelique put out a slim hand covered with 
handsome rings, and laid it on her sister’s. ‘ Dear 
old Safety-Valve,’ she said caressingly, and no 
woman on earth could be so utterly caressing 
as Angelique was when she chose, ‘ I dare- 


THE MONEY SENSE 


135 


say I am diflferent. I was always different to 
you. Would, for some things, that I were more 
like you, and yet — yet — I don’t know. You 
were a good woman with a bad husband, and he 
broke your heart. I am no such very good 
woman, and my husband will never break my 
heart, because I shall never give him the chance. 
It comes to the same in the end — good women’s 
husbands break their wives hearts, bad women’s 
husbands break ’ 

‘ Don’t, Angel, don’t,’ cried Gwyn in a tone of 
sharp pain. ‘ I cannot bear to hear you.’ 

‘Poor dear, it’s too bad to tease you,’ cried 
Angelique penitently. ‘ I am always shocking 
you, dear old Safety-Valve that you are. But, 
my dear, let me tell you one thing in all solemn, 
sober truth — don’t worry yourself to fiddle-strings 
over Ian and my shortcomings to him. It is 
precious sympathy wasted. Ian has a very good 
time, and I make him an excellent wife, better 
on the whole than he deserves. Don’t get into a 
way of fancying that Ian is an ill-used and 
stinted person — it’s not so. ’ 

Mrs. Torville sighed and said no more. She 
was a simple, gentle creature, who had found life 
mostly a disappointment, though she still cher- 
ished illusions, more particularly such as dealt 
with the marriage state. She still believed 


136 THE MONEY SENSE 

that marriages were made in heaven, although 
her own marriage had been from beginning to 
end as a foretaste of the other place with 
which eternity is commonly credited. At the 
time of Angelique’s marriage she had been 
shocked, hurt, embarrassed, her feelings of pro- 
priety had been outraged, her sense of delicacy 
sorely wounded; and since that time, partly 
deceived by the tranquility which had prevailed 
during her brief visits to the house in Maida 
Vale, and partly influenced by Mrs. Dods- 
worth’s glowing descriptions of the delights 
and glories of Angelique’s everyday life, she 
had, quite against her own better judgment, 
come to feel that her favourite sister’s marriage 
bore, as it should have done in the beginning, 
the blessed imprint of Heaven’s own hand and 
seal. 

She did not understand Angelique in the very 
least, and every day she was more and more 
puzzled and mystified. For one thing, her 
behaviour was so contradictory. At times her 
tenderness of manner towards Ian surprised and 
confounded her, and at others her intense bitter- 
ness and worldliness repelled and shocked her 
beyond measure; while at all times her way of 
openly scoffing at all that the everyday good 
woman holds most sacred and holy jarred upon 


THE MONEY SENSE 


137 


Gwyn’s sensitive nature to a strangely unpleasant 
degree. Under no circumstances could Gwyn 
have brought herself to marry Ian Ingram ; but 
having married him, she would have gone loyally 
through with her life, even if she had died in 
living it. 


CHAPTER XII 

It was with curiously mixed feelings that 
Angelique found herself once more in her old 
home. She had been married just a year; and 
that year, with its hopes and fears, its shocks 
and disappointments, had done more than all the 
years of her life which had gone before to open 
her eyes in the very widest sense and to make 
her what she had only, with a certain amount of 
recklessness, played at being aforetime — a woman 
of the world. 

In one thing she was most altered of all, which 
was that her mother no longer irritated her. 
On the contrary, she had come to regard her as 
the most amusing person she had ever known, 
and it became a positive delight to start Mrs. 
Dodsworth explaining things in general, and one 
special subject in particular. 

‘ I cannot realise that you have had a baby, 
Angelique,’ Mrs. Dodsworth began, as soon as 
Angelique was fairly in the house. 

*38 


THE MONEY SEN'SE 


139 


‘It’s too true, Mother,’ said Angelique, who 
was just then inclined to look at everything 
through rose-tinted spectacles. 

‘ Yes, but to think that a child of mine should 
have a still-born baby,’ Mrs. Dodsworth per- 
sisted. ‘ I never thought of such a thing as being 
in the least likely to happen. ’ 

‘ I didn’t want it to be still-born. Mother,’ said 
Angelique .mildly. 

‘No, my dear, no, and it must have been a very 
great disappointment to you,’ said Mrs. Dods- 
worth sympathetically; ‘but what I want to 
know is, how did such a thing happen ? There 
must have been a cause for it.’ 

' Ah , that is what I cannot tell you,’ returned 
Angelique — and it was true enough. ‘ You must 
have a talk to the doctor the next time you 
come to see us. I don’t remember very much 
about it. ’ 

‘ But if you had had a shock, or ’ 

‘No use, Mother,’ broke in Angelique good- 
humouredly. ‘ I cannot tell you what I don’t 
know. Suppose you tell me all about the people 
hereabouts. How is Mrs. Williams going on ?’ 

‘More pretentiously than ever,’ said Mrs. 
Dodsworth, with emphasis. ‘And, poor soul, 
what she would do if she had not me to come to 
for ideas, I cannot think. I assure you, she has 


140 


THE MONEY SENSE 


got her drawing-room window curtains tied up 
precisely in the same way as mine.’ 

‘Sensible woman,’ said Angelique, who had 
recognised her own special fancy in window 
curtain arrangement the moment she had crossed 
the threshold of the room. ‘There’s nothing 
like having a good model to copy. You know 
that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.’ 

‘ Ah, well, Mrs. Williams is a poor creature in 
spite of her airs. She will be coming to see you, 
I daresay.’ 

‘ I daresay she will,’ said Angelique indifierently. 

Surely enough, Mrs. Williams did turn up at 
Beech Croft the very next day ; the news of the 
arrival of ‘the bride,’ as Angelique was still 
called in the village, having spread through the 
neighbourhood like wildfire. 

‘Well, Angelique,’ she began, as soon as 
Angelique had taken her hand, ‘ but I suppose I 
must call you “Mrs. Ingram” now,’ breaking 
off with a snap. 

‘As you please, dear lady,’ said Angelique 
sweetly. 

Mrs. Williams snorted like a war-horse scenting 
the battle from afar. Angelique’ s sweetness and 
insouciance were almost too much for her even 
at that early stage of the interview, and the 
flippant ‘ dear lady ’ jarred upon her disagreeably. 


THE MONEY SENSE 141 

She did not know that it was a term which 
Angelique had picked up from a much photo- 
graphed actress of unblemished reputation and 
considerable social ambitions, combined with a 
singular absence of histrionic gifts, who, in her 
turn, had picked it up from a con-scBur who had 
successfully scaled the social ladder to the very 
topmost rung. Mrs. Williams knew nothing of 
actresses — they were all one of a clan to her, they 
were all tarred with the same brush. To her the 
term was synonymous with that of demimon- 
daine^ only that she used two little plain un- 
varnished Saxon words to express the same 
meaning. She did not know, poor benighted 
provincial soul, that there are actresses in whom 
virtue is a positive vice, in whom motherhood is 
a sampler to be held up for the admiration and 
example of all Eve’s daughters. She was very 
provincial, very domestic, very old-fashioned, and 
she had never even heard of the new woman or 
the pattern actress; and so Angelique’ s ‘dear 
lady,’ coupled with the fact that her baby had 
been still-born, jarred upon her, and took away 
such shreds of sweetness and of sympathy as she 
had brought with her. 

‘ Is your husband well ?’ she asked. 

‘ Oh yes, many thanks,’ said Angelique. ‘ Ian 
is very well.’ 


142 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘You call it E-an?’ she asked, for this had 
been a moot point with some of the people in the 
neighbourhood. 

‘ I think most people do,’ replied Angelique. 

‘ Oh, do they ?’ said Mrs. Williams, in an un- 
satisfied sort of tone, ‘ I daresay they do; but to 
my mind it’s an outlandish kind of a name for a 
Christian to carry through life with him. But 
there, Angelique, I quite forgot that your hus- 
band is — is — a ’ 

‘ A Hebrew,’ suggested Angelique very sweetly. 

‘Yes, I meant that, and no offence, of course. 
When I said Christian, I — I — meant an everyday 
sort of person.’ 

‘Don’t put yourself out, Mrs. Williams,’ said 
Angelique quietly, ‘ my husband is not the least 
ashamed of being a Hebrew; on the contrary, he 
is always feeling a sort of apology towards his 
own people because I am not one also.’ 

‘ Really!’ in a tone of intense astonishment. 
Then after a silence, ‘ But I daresay that’s 
natural, very natural. I’ve heard that Chinamen 
don’t think much of our complexions, for 
instance.’ 

‘ Very possibly. A Chinaman would think you 
had too much colour, while a nigger would regard 
you as a poor washed-out thing. These are all 
matters of taste.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


143 


‘ And Mr. Ingram — is he here?’ 

‘ No ; I came down with Gwyn.’ 

‘Without him! I wonder you liked to come 
alone — the first time, too.’ 

‘ My husband could not get away from busi- 
ness. He is a very busy man.’ 

‘And I hear very well off,’ chimed in Mrs. 
Williams, who was simply dying to ask what 
Angelique’s dress allowance was. 

‘ Oh, no, we live very comfortably, nothing 
more than that. By the way, Mrs. Williams, 
is the little china shop at Perringham still 
open ?’ 

‘Oh yes — I was past it the other day. Of 
course, you were very much upset about your 
baby. ’ 

‘ I was very sorry,’ said Angelique simply. 

‘Your mother was terribly upset about it,’ 
Mrs. Williams went on blandly. ‘And everybody 
wondered you didn’t have her up to see you 
over it. ’ 

‘Very kind of them,’ murmured Angelique.- 
‘ Ah, here is my mother. Mother, here is Mrs. 
Williams.’ 

Mrs. Dodsworth came into the room with her 
usual flat-footed, noiseless, yet heavy footfall, 
and with something of a new accession of dignity. 
Angelique turned in her chair to watch, with 


144 


THE MONEY SENSE 


most intense enjoyment, the total annihilation 
and discomfiture of her old antagonist, Mrs. 
Williams. 

For a few days all this proved to be very 
amusing; and as Gwyn was always willing and 
ready to go off in the pony trap with her to hunt 
up stray bits of oak and china, Angelique enjoyed 
her visit to the old house exceedingly well. And 
Ian Ingram wrote every day, always deploring 
her absence, bidding her be sure to have a good 
time, and yet saying that he felt like a fish out of 
water without her. ‘ I miss you more and more 
every day,’ he said in one letter, when she had 
been nearly a month at Beech Croft. ‘ This house 
seems like a charnel-house without you, and it is 
like coming home every night to a sepulchre to 
sit eating my dinner alone with only your old 
plates to look at instead of you. I shall dine at 
the club after to-night. I can’t stand my loneli- 
ness any longer.’ 

After this, Angelique took pity on him and 
went back, and then he was free of business for 
a few weeks, which they spent together in a 
delightful tour in foreign lands which Angelique 
had never seen before. It was like a new honey- 
moon, a renewal of the first days of their marriage, 
and not even the shadow of Millicent and the 
remembrance of the little dead babe seemed to 


THE MONEY SENSE 


145 

be left to disturb the smoothness of the matri- 
monial waters. 

‘Ian,’ said Angelique the morning after their 
return home to Maida Vale, ‘ I’m going to send 
out cards soon.’ 

‘ Yes, of course.’ 

‘ I think I might leave some people out this 
year. ’ 

‘ Oh, who ?’ looking up. 

‘The Polenskwis — and the Josephs — and sev- 
eral others.’ 

‘ It seems a pity.’ 

‘ No, we’re too Jewish altogether. I don’t 
mind smart Jews, of course not, but these 
commercial Jews are no use to us.’ 

‘But the Josephs are my cousins,’ he ob- 
jected. 

‘ They talk through their noses, and wear too 
much jewellery,’ said Angelique quickly. ‘ I 
don’t like their kind. I’m going in for my own 
people — Jews are no sort of use to me. Besides, 
Ian, it’s the ambition of all Jews to know Chris- 
tians (in this country, at all events), so what is 
the good of your being married to a Christian 
woman unless you take advantage of it? I shall 
never get any further with your people, for 
you’ve no connection with the really swagger 
Jews, the Rothschilds and all those, and with 

10 


146 THE MONEY SENSE 

my own people I can practically know anybody 
I choose to. ’ 

‘ Oh, well, you must do as you like about that, 
only pray remember that I am not possessed of 
unlimited wealth, Angelique, and that you 
mustn’t increase our expenses just at present 
— rather the other way if possible. And take 
my advice, don’t burn your boats behind you 
too soon. You wouldn’t like to find your- 
self stranded without acquaintances of any 
kind.’ 

‘ I shall not do that,’ said Angelique, in atone 
of quiet assurance. 

The result of this conversation was that Mrs. 
Ian Ingram sent out about a third of the number 
of cards that she had scattered over Jewish 
society a year previously, and quite two-thirds of 
those she received were consigned straightway 
to the oblivion of the wastepaper basket. The 
aftermath of this proceeding may be summed up 
in two words — great offence. For Angelique 
gave great offence to all those whom she left 
out, and still greater offence to all those who 
duly attended to her days, but whose visits she 
never attempted to return. 

‘ Mrs. Ingram is beginning to weed,’ remarked 
one rich and highly coloured Jewess to another 
on the third of these receptions. ‘ The Josephs 


THE MONEY SENSE 147 

have not been asked, nor the Cecil Isaacs, nor 
the Solomon Israels.’ 

‘ Is that so ? Well, I don’t know that I blame 
her so much.’ 

‘ Of course, they are all perfectly furious about 
it. The Lerissa Josephs have been close friends 
of the Isaacs for ever, and are cousins too. 
And the Solomon Israels are far richer than the 
Isaacs.’ 

‘ She doesn’t understand, and she doesn’t care. 
Besides, she has grown tired of having so much 
family to think of, ’ said the second Hebrew lady 
indulgently. ‘ After all, she is not one of us, 
and can never quite understand all the things 
that we have to think of.’ 

Yet, nevertheless, each matron was filled with 
admiration for Angelique in having sufficient 
nerve to deliberately fly in the face of the entire 
Jewish community; and each was wondering in 
her heart whether, when another year came 
round, her name might not be the one to be 
struck off the list of this Christian girl’s acquain- 
tances ? 

Angelique professed herself quite horrified 
when her sister-in-law broached the subject to 
her. ‘ Cut people — give myself airs — weed my 
list? Oh, not at all. I didn’t send out quite so 
many cards, for I had far more people last season 


148 THE MONEY SENSE 

than this little house would hold with anything 
like comfort. Ian won’t go into a larger one — 
says he cannot afford it. Such nonsense! So, as I 
said to him, “if you won’ t or can’ t move, we must 
cut our coat accordingly and ask fewer people.” ’ 

A few days later Ian spoke to her about it. 
‘By the way, dearest,’ he said, ‘what’s this 
about your wanting to move into a larger house?’ 

‘ Goodness knows!’ replied Angelique. ‘I don’t 
want the trouble of moving, not I.’ 

‘ But Rebecca has been upbraiding me for not 
letting you do so. By Jove, she made me feel a 
regular brute!’ 

‘ Ah, it is a thousand pities your sister Rebecca 
cannot mind her own business,’ said Angelique 
drily. ‘ The truth of the matter is this. On my 
last day she attacked me before a lot of people 
for not having sent cards to certain people; and, 
as I could not own up before an audience that I 
had been deliberately weeding, I told her as you 
wouldn’t move into a larger house, I really 
couldn’t ask so many people to this one. When 
I want anything of you, Ian, be very sure I shall 
not employ your sister Rebecca or anybody else 
as a go-between.’ 

‘ I sincerely hope not,’ looking at her with a 
smile which suddenly made Angelique think how 
very Jewish in feature he was. ‘ To tell you the 


THE MONEY SENSE 


149 


truth, dearest, I am very much relieved to find 
that you don’t want to leave this house. Times 
are not so good that such an expense would not 
matter, and if you had set your mind on it ’ 

‘You would do it?’ asked Angelique, with 
a curious breathlessness. 

‘I have never gone dead against you yet, 
Angelique,’ he said, with a dignity which was 
not untouched with pathos. 

‘No — no — you are very good in most ways,’ 
she said hastily, ‘And I don’t want to leave 
this house. I’m very fond of it. I do wish, 
though, you would do one thing for me.’ 

‘ Yes ?’ he looked up sharply. 

‘ I hate that overmantel; it annoys me every 
time I look at it. I should like to change it for 
a less heavy one. ’ 

‘ That’s a simple matter enough.’ 

‘ Oh yes. Did you think I wanted to ask for 
something impossible?’ 

‘ I thought it might be something more im- 
portant.’ 

‘ Then I’ll gratify you. I want some money— 
badly,’ she said coolly. 

‘ Money ?’ 

‘Yes; I have several bills to pay, and no 
money to pay them with. ’ 

‘ What sort of bills ?’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


150 

‘ For chiffons — one must have them. Some- 
how, money seems to slip through one’s fingers 
like water.’ 

‘ How much do you want ?’ 

‘ A few thousands.’ 

‘ No — seriously.’ 

‘ Well, I really want a hundred.’ 

‘A hundred! My dear child, truly I cannot 
spare it just now. Money is fearfully tight 
everywhere. I’ll manage twenty-five, though 
that’s not actually convenient.’ 

‘Twenty-five — that’s rather a drop, isn’t it? 
Well, I’ll make it do for the present, ’ she replied 
ungraciously. 

‘You shall have it. But, Angelique, I hope 
you’re not getting into debt’ 

‘I am in debt, of course — every woman is,’ 
she said, in a tone of supreme indifference. 
‘ But not such as you need worry about. Then 
I shall go to Eyon’s and arrange about the over- 
mantel.’ 

‘ Lyon will cheat you to a certainty if you do. 
Let me do it for you. ’ 

‘ You don’t know what I want’ 

‘We can go together. I’ll meet you there 
about four this afternoon if you like. ’ 

‘ Very well. By the way, you’ll give me that 
cheque before you go out ?’ 


CHAPTER XIII 

When Ian Ingram reached his office that 
morning, he found something in the nature of a 
shock awaiting him. It was in the shape of a 
letter, and the very first sight of the uneducated 
handwriting on the envelope gave him a sensa- 
tion resembling a cold shudder. 

‘ Dear Mr. Ingram,’ the letter itself ran, ‘ I 
take this opportunity of writing to you hopping 
that all is well with you as I wish I were at 
present. Sir, I have got down to my last 
shilling. God knows I’ve been careful, but my 
helth has been bad ever since I left your house 
and it is quite impossible for me to think of 
taking another place in my present cirkum- 
stances. So I must ask you to do something for 
me, seeing that you was the cause of my 
trubble. Please send at once — or I’m here if 
yon come. — Yours truly, Millicent Page.’ 

Ian Ingram was a very methodical man; he 

'S' 


152 


THE MONEY SENSE 


noted down the address in his pocket-book , and 
then he tore the letter in halves and threw them 
into the fire. Then he sat down at his great 
desk and said — ‘ D — n!’ 

But that did not prevent his looking over his 
correspondence or keep him from giving instruc- 
tions to his shorthand clerk when that function- 
ary made his appearance. ‘ By the way, I shall 
not see any one after half-past three to-day. 
I have an outside appointment at four o’clock,’ 
he added, as a last instruction, when his letters 
were disposed of. Business thus far arranged, 
he found himself alone again. Then his thoughts 
went back to Millicent Page once more; and the 
more he thought of her, the more quickly did his 
annoyance at having been reminded of her 
existence evaporate. ‘ After all, poor girl,’ he 
told himself, ‘ it was rough luck on her. A pity 
she didn’t keep herself in hand well enough to 
hold her tongue; but there, women are all alike, 
their feelings are such a trouble to them.’ 

He shook himself free of his thoughts, and 
began looking over some papers of considerable 
importance to him, meaning not to let the 
existence of Millicent Page worry him again 
until he should have to write a cheque later on. 
However, try as he would, he could not force his 
mind entirely away from the writer of the 


THE MONEY SENSE 


153 


piteous letter which he had just destroyed. 
Her rather pretty face kept coming in between 
him and the papers before him, and in a sense 
reproaching him for what was past and yet not 
past. 

‘ Hang it all,’ he said at last, ‘ I’ll go and see 
her and get it over. If I send a cheque, I may 
find out afterwards that she has had a mishap, 
and is simply doing me in the eye. I didn’t 
mean to see her again at all ; but, after all, it’s 
a necessary thing to do, and moreover, a thing 
that nobody can do for me. It’s half-past eleven 
now — I’ve time to go before lunch. Yes, I’ll go 
and get it over.’ 

He looked at the carefully noted address again. 
‘ H’m! Store Street, Clerkenwell. Clerken- 
well — horrid place to live in.’ He pitied Milli- 
cent not a little. Then he struck the handbell 
on his table. 

‘Oh, Mr. Johnson,’ he said, when the clerk 
came in, ‘ I am going out. I shall not be back 
till after lunch. If any one particularly wants to 
see me, you can arrange it for any time between 
2.30 and 3.30. I can see no one later, but I 
have no appointment for to-morrow excepting 
one at three o’clock.’ 

‘ Very good, sir. And what about that business 
of Mrs. Greville’s?’ 


154 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘Oh, that! Yes; well, ask her to come on 
Friday twelve o’clock! I will have everything 
in train by then.’ 

‘ Very good, sir.’ 

‘ So Ian Ingram was free to set out for the dingy 
street in Clerkenwell from which Millicent had 
written. He walked a couple of streets away 
from his office before he saw a cab which he 
described in his own mind as ‘ good enough.’ 
Having found this, he got into it, and told the 
driver where to go. And by the time he got 
there, he pitied Millicent more than ever. 

A dirty-faced girl of about fifteen opened the 
door in answer to his knock. ‘ Does Miss Page 
live here?’ he asked. 

‘ Miss Paige — yus, she does,’ the girl replied. 

‘ Can I see her ?’ he further questioned. 

‘ ’Ow, yus. Come in. ’Oo shall I saiy ?’ 

‘ Oh, never mind the name,’ he said, feeling a 
sudden qualm rush over him. 

‘ ’Ow — orl right. Gow in there, will yer ?’ 

‘ In there ’ was the small front room, a dingy 
apartment furnished with a chest of drawers, 
four hair-seated chairs, a small round table, and 
some cotton antimacassars. It gave Ian Ingram 
the impression that it was only used for funerals. 

Millicent came to him immediately; and the 
moment that his eyes fell upon her, he saw that 


THE MONEY SENSE 


155 


there could be no reasonable doubt as to her 
condition. He noticed, too, that she looked 
exceedingly ill. 

It must be confessed that Millicent was 
particularly judicious in her manner to him. 
She met him with the half-hesitating way of 
one who has got into a scrape, but wishes to 
blame nobody excepting herself for it. She sat 
down on the chair nearest to him, saying that 
she was that weak she really could not stand 
about, and then she looked round the room with 
a hopeless gaze, and said, ‘ Isn’t it a wretched 
hole ?’ 

Ian Ingram agreed with her fully. He had 
scrutinized her closely during the few minutes 
which had passed since her coming into the 
room, and saw that she was speckless and very 
neat, just as scrupulously presentable as he had 
always been accustomed to see her. 

‘ I’d soon make this room look decent,’ she said 
pathetically, ‘ but my stepmother won’t have it 
used every day, and thinks a fire is a wicked 
waste. It’s no use wasting time cleaning it out 
if she won’t have it used.’ 

‘ No, no,’ said he; then added, ‘ I didn’t know 
you had a stepmother, Millicent.’ 

‘No? Ah, well, she lets me know it, I can 
tell you. Every minute of the day she throws 


156 THE MONEY SENSE 

my misfortune in my face — and — and — I’ve paid 
her well so far.’ 

‘Oh, well, you can soon stop that,’ said he 
soothingly. ‘ You must have known perfectly 
well I shouldn’t leave you in the lurch. Is it 
likely ?’ 

‘ You never know what is or isn’t likely with a 
man,’ said Millicent, with a sniffle. ‘ I thought 
you’d given me up for good and all, yes — I did,’ 
with a sob. ‘ Of course, I know I made an 
awful fool of myself, but — but — I was that fond 
of you ’ 

‘ Don’t, Millicent,’ burst out Ian Ingram, feel- 
ing inclined to choke. 

‘ And when I realised that it was all no good 
and never would be, and that I could never be 
anything to you, why, I got that mad, I don’t 
know what I did or what I said. And — and — I 
only made you angry. And how I’ve fretted 
since — and ’ 

‘ Poor little girl,’ said Ian, hitching his chair a 
trifle nearer to hers. 

‘ I am so unhappy here,’ Millicent went on 
miserably, ‘ I haven’t even got a bed to myself 
— and — the meals are beastly; and just now 
when I fancy other sorts of things to eat, it falls 
hard on me.’ 

‘ Poor little girl!’ repeated Ian, edging yet 


THE MONEY SENSE 


157 


closer, so closely indeed that somehow his arm 
found its way round her waist, ‘ we must find a 
way out of all that. Look here, Millicent, I 
can’t stand seeing you like this — and — and — 
partly through me, too. I’ll take you down to 
Brighton for a few days.’ 

He well knew that Angelique detested Brigh- 
ton, and would never want to go there. Millicent 
looked up eagerly, then dropped her head again. 

‘I can’t go to Brighton,’ she said despond- 
ently. ‘ I’ve nothing to wear but this, and I 
haven’t any sort of a cloak. I’m wearing a 
shawl when I do go out, which isn’t often.’ 

He smiled. ‘ We’ll soon mend that. I brought 
you some money this morning, as I did not know 
whether a cheque would be as convenient. Go 
to Peter Robinson’s and get yourself a smart 
black tea-gown and a cloak thing — a proper one 
Do you think twenty pounds will do what you 
want ?’ 

‘ Oh yes, I can get turned out proper for 
twenty pounds,’ Millicent exclaimed joyfully. 
‘ And do you mean you’ll really take me down to 
Brighton — with you? Oh, Mr. Ingram ’ 

‘ Couldn’t you say Ian ?’ he suggested. ‘ Or 
stay, we’d better go under another name, just for 
safety! Wood — Mr. and Mrs. Wood. You might 
call me Jack or Tom or George.’ 


158 THE MONEY SENSE 

‘Jack,’ she said promptly, then caught him to 
her in a wild and jubilant gush of feeling. 

‘ Oh, dear, dear, darling Jack, be good to me; 
don’t make me come back here — it’s just like 
’elL’ 

‘Oh, I think we’ll manage better than that,’ 
he said soothingly. ‘ And do you think you can 
be ready to go down to Brighton to-morrow? 
Yes — then meet me at Victoria at ten to five 
without fail.’ 

‘ I’ll be there,’ Millicent cried. 

‘ I must go now,’ he said, looking at his watch. 
‘What? Oh, the money — yes, of course. Let 
me see now — twenty pounds, in notes — and here 
are three sovereigns more. Make it do, but be 
sure that you look nice, as nice as you can. ’ 

He kissed her very tenderly, and went out to 
the cab which he had kept waiting for him. And 
on the way back to the restaurant where he 
usually lunched, he mused with a glow of self- 
satisfaction that he was doing the right thing by 
a woman who had trusted him, and that what- 
ever his duty to Angelique, he was also morally 
bound to do his duty by Millicent. 

He supposed, indeed he felt sure that Angelique 
would be terribly angry were she to find out that 
he was taking Millicent down to Brighton — that 
went without saying, of course. And yet, poor 


THE MONEY SENSE 


159 


little thing (Millicent was a tall girl really), how 
wan and pinched she looked, and how wretched 
she seemed in that bare and dingy little parlour. 
It was no more than her due that she should have 
a bit of a change, as any other woman in her 
condition might want. And, after all, it was not 
as if Angelique did not know all about Millicent’s 
trouble ; even she would hardly grudge her the 
positive necessaries of life, and he would take 
care to make it up to her in another way. 

With this laudable notion in his mind, Ian 
Ingram arrived at the door of the restaurant. In 
a moment Millicent was forgotten, for he was 
hailed by three or four city men with whom he 
was on intimate terms, his ‘ companions in guilt,’ 
as Angelique always called them. 

But although city men are in the habit of 
having very jolly times when they meet together 
for their midday meal, they do not linger very 
long after the meal has been disposed of, unless 
they happen to be doing something in the nature 
of a deal. On this particular occasion Ian 
Ingram and his companions separated in time for 
him to be back in his office as he had arranged 
with Mr. Johnson. 

A good deal of business of one sort or another 
was awaiting his attention, but he got through it 
in time to keep his appointment with Angelique. 


i6o THE MONEY SENSE 


Perhaps it was the consciousness that he was 
again wronging her which made him so lavish 
that day, for he bought several other articles of 
furniture which took her fancy. Then they drove 
home together in the cosy little brougham which 
Angelique used so much more than he did. 

‘ By the bye, ’ he said, in as casual a tone as he 
could muster, ‘ I forgot to tell you before, dearest. 
I shall be obliged to run down to Brighton to- 
morrow.’ 

‘To Brighton! Why, what are you going 
there for ?’ she asked in a surprised tone. 

‘ I have to see a client on business, ’ he replied. 

‘ Oh well, so long as you don’t want me to go,’ 
she said with a laugh. ‘ And you’ll miss Mrs. 
Lennox’s party.’ 

‘ You can go without me.’ 

‘ Oh yes, quite well,’ she said easily. 

Now, as a matter of fact, Mrs. Lennox was by 
far the most important woman whose acquaint- 
ance Angelique had made since her marriage. 
She bore a magic word in front of her name, and 
took good care that every one should know it. 
She was not a little exclusive in her social 
relations, and was most particular about the 
people she asked to her house. With Angelique 
she had quite fallen in love at some afternoon 
at-home at which they would both have been 


THE MONEY SENSE 


i6i 


bored to death had it not been for the other, and 
in an almost unheard gush of gratitude she had 
begged Mrs. Ingram to call upon her. And 
Angelique had very prettily demurred, saying 
with a charming mixture of deference and regret, 
that she was mixed up in a rather city sort of 
set, and did not think Mrs. Lennox would find 
any of her friends interesting. 

I, find you extremely interesting,’ said Mrs. 
Lennox bluntly, ‘and that is the chief thing. So, 
please, come and see me, my dear — it will give 
me so much pleasure. ’ 

Thus bidden, Angelique did go to see Mrs. 
Lennox. She found her alone, and together they 
sat in a delicate maize-tinted boudoir, and 
Angelique gradually unfolded the story of her 
life. Not quite an accurate story, but then how 
was Mrs. Lennox to know that ? Angelique was 
an adept at telling a story, not actually a lie, yet 
a good deal wide of the truth. In this case she 
confided something about Gustav Maynard, only 
suppressing his name, of how she had suffered, 
and how cruel all the people at home had been 
in not allowing her to forget it. She gave Mrs. 
Lennox a description of the old home at Beech 
Croft, which would not have been second to Mrs. 
Dodsworth’s loose and idyllic accounts of the old 
place. And then she told how she had met 

It 


i 62 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Ian Ingram while staying in town, suppressing 
all about her attempts to become an actress, 
and keeping the existence of ‘ Derrick’s’ care- 
fully in the background. She skilfully drew a 
sublimated sketch of her husband, touching very 
lightly on the fact that he was of necessity 
mixed up in a city set, and lingering with a 
pretty earnestness on the goodness with which 
he had treated her; and, in short, drawing such a 
portrait of Ian, that he would have been genuinely 
and thoroughly astonished if he could have heard 
her. 

And the result of all this was that Mrs. Lennox 
patted her indulgently on the arm, and told her 
that she must drop all her city people as soon as 
she could, aud that she would make her known 
to a suitable set. 

‘ Of course, all city men have to know business 
men — it’s necessary,’ Mrs,. Lennox wound up, 
‘ but there is nothing to be gained either socially 
or any other way by visiting exclusively among 
them. For instance, if your husband wishes to 
entertain a man on business, that man will 
think much more of him if he goes to a dinner 
party at his house and meets no other city 
people at it. ’ 

‘ Oh, I am sure you are perfectly right there,’ 
said Angelique. ‘ I daresay I made awful mis- 


THE MONEY SENSE 163 

takes when I first came to live in town; but I 
knew no one, and had no one to guide me, and so 
many people called on me whose names I did not 
know, and whose style I could not stand, that 
I felt perfectly miserable. However, this season 
I weeded a great many of them out. Ian thought 
I should give great offence, and I daresay I did.’ 

‘ Oh yes, I daresay, but it could not matter if 
such people are offended or not,’ said Mrs. Lennox 
in a tone of unmitigated contempt. ‘ Indeed, they 
are better offended than friendly.’ 

Naturally, Mrs. Lennox returned Angelique’s 
visit in due course; but as she did not call on her 
regular day, she saw no one excepting the 
mistress of the pretty house. It happened that 
Angelique had, when sending out cards a few 
months previously , bethought her of having some 
new visiting-cards printed bearing simply the 
name and address, and omitting the at-home day 
which her first cards had borne. She had intended 
these for various persons whom she could not 
easily drop, and whom she did not wish to be 
seen at her receptions. Now, however, they 
came in handy for an exactly opposite purpose 
to that for which they were intended, and it was 
one of these which she left upon Mrs. Lennox. 

Angelique happened to have just gone upstairs 
to dress when Mrs. Lennox arrived. ‘ Let us 


i 64 the money sense 

have tea as soon as possible, and serve it very 
carefully,’ said Angelique to the parlour maid. 

‘ And send the carriage away for half an hour 
when it comes, and say “ Not at home ” to any 
other callers. ’ 

‘ Yes, m’m,’ said the maid. 

Then Angelique went down all in a pretty 
flutter of pleasure. And Mrs. Eennox having 
scrutinised the room through her long-handled 
glasses, and having satisfied herself that there 
was money, and that the apartment was not 
overdone with effigies of affectionate relatives, 
was disposed to be more protectively friendly 
than ever. 

‘ What made you come out so far?’ she asked, 
when something was said about the distance to 
the theatres. 

Angelique started. ‘ Well, I really don’ t know, ’ 
she said vaguely. ‘ We thought the houses 
seemed nice, and that this part would do as well 
as any other.’ 

‘ Oh, the houses are nice enough, but, of course, 
the neighbourhood is wholly unfashionable,’ said 
Mrs. Lennox with decision. ‘However, I daresay, 
like a good many other young people, you will 
be moving by and by.’ 

‘ Not just yet,’ said Angelique. 

It was not until Mrs. Lennox was taking her 


THE MONEY SENSE 165 

leave that she stopped to admire a photograph 
in a silver frame which stood on the grand piano. 

‘ That is a charming face,’ she said. 

Angelique flushed with delight. ‘ That is my 
dear and sweet, good sister,’ she said tenderly. 

‘ Ah ! And she lives ?’ 

‘ At home, yes. She is a widow.’ 

‘ How sad ! It is a charming face. I hope you 
will bring her to see me some time. Good-\iy^\ 
so glad to have found you in.’ 

So Angelique was not altogether sorry when 
she found that Ian’s visit to Brighton would 
necessitate her going to Mrs. Eennox’s evening 
party by herself. She was by no means anxious 
to display her little dark-visaged husband under 
the cold gaze of her new patrician friend. She 
knew that he would not show off well by com- 
parison with the well-bred men of position with 
whom Mrs. Lennox was daily accustomed to 
associate. And, partly from this sense of relief, 
she let Ian’s absence pass without comment, and 
indeed without thought. 

How she enjoyed that party! She wore a new 
white dress, plain and rich, with a few fine 
diamonds on her corsage. She was conscious 
that she was much remarked and greatly ad- 
mired, and her happiness was brought to a 
climax when her hostess appeared at her side. 


i66 


THE MONEY SENSE 


convoying a tall, elderly man of extremely dis- 
tinguished appearance. 

‘ Let me introduce Sir John Berkeley,’ Mrs. 
Lennox said. ‘Sir John, Mrs. Ian Ingram. 
Take her down to supper, and take great care of 
her.’ 

A strange thrill of triumph, which was almost 
akin to pain, passed through Angelique as Sir 
John offered her his arm and led her away. His 
was a name known from one end of the civilised 
world to the other, a name that was a power in 
the land, a name to conjure with, a name which 
was known as that of one of the most dis- 
tinguished and successful painters of the day. 
She felt almost shy, and yet very proud. 

‘This is such a delight to me,’ said Sir John, 
bending down over her, and speaking in a very 
gallant and impressive voice. 

‘ And why ?’ asked Angelique, looking up at 
him with her big, beautiful eyes. 

‘ Why ? Because I have been watching you 
for ever so long, wondering who you were, and 
how I could get to know you. And then I got 
hold of Mrs. Lennox, and boldly demanded an 
introduction.’ 

‘That was very nice of you,’ said Angelique 
prettily. ‘And I’m sure I hope you won’t be 
disappointed. I am really a very, very insignifi- 


THE MONEY SENSE 167 

cant person, of no account in the world, and you 
must know hundreds and hundreds of very much 
more interesting women than I.’ 

‘ I do know some very nice women,’ Sir John 
admitted modestly — ‘ Mrs. Lennox for instance. 
On my word, I don’t know a nicer woman or a 
dearer in all London than she is.’ 

And then they talked a little about their 
hostess, and Angelique told him how inestimably 
kind Mrs. Lennox had been to her, and what a 
difference her friendship had made in her life. 
She confided a little to him also of her society 
diflSculties, and of the trial it was to a girl who 
had lived all her life in an idyllic place in the 
country to find her way unscathed among the 
mazes of a city connection. 

‘ As to the city being a contamination,’ said 
Sir John, ‘I must say that is mostly nonsense. 
Almost everybody is something in the city nowa- 
days, and we painters would do very badly if 
there were no such place. For myself, I dine 
with city people about every other night, and 
they buy my pictures, and enable me to make a 
decent living.’ 

‘But you wouldn’t like them always,’ said 
Angelique. 

‘ Well, no, possibly not,possibly not, ’he rejoined 
easily, then rose to speak to a dowdy old lady 


i68 


THE MONEY SENSE 


who had stopped by his chair on her way out 
of the supper-room. Angelique could not hear 
what they were saying; but as the old lady 
turned away, he said, ‘Good-night, Duchess,’ 
and immediately sat down again as if nothing out 
of the common had happened. 

‘ Who was that ?’ Angelique asked. 

‘The Duchess of Twyford,’ Sir John replied. 

‘ She’s a dear old lady.’ 

‘ Very dowdy,’ remarked Angelique. 

‘ Yes, but then she has no need to be anything 
else,’ he said carelessly. 

Somehow, the remark, careless as it was, im- 
pressed Angelique with a sense of the importance 
of his position and the strength of his outlook 
upon the world more than anything else that he 
could have said. It had never before entered 
into her calculations that a person could exist so 
exalted in power and place as to be wholly 
indifferent to outer appearances and to outside 
opinion. True, she had never before seen a 
duchess at close quarters, which may have had 
something to do with the case. 

That evening’s acquaintance was the beginning 
of a close intimacy between Angelique and the 
famous painter, whose title was a testimony to 
his value iu the eyes of Queen and country. She 
was so elated by her glimpse into a new world, 


THE MONEY SENSE 


169 

that she quite forgot to take more than a passing 
interest in her husband’s trip to the Queen of 
Watering Places. 

‘So you’re back, dear boy,’ she remarked, 
when Ian Ingram made his appearance the fol- 
lowing evening. 

‘ Yes, dearest. And you — are you all right ?’ 
he asked. 

‘ Oh yes, dear. Did you have a good time ?’ 

‘ A good time — h’m! Well, yes, as good as I 
could have without you.’ 

‘ I meant in a business sense, of course,’ she 
said. ‘ You dined with your client ?’ 

‘ I did,’ he replied, feeling that the term client 
was an elastic one, and might be stretched as far as 
was requisite. ‘ And how did your party go off?’ 

‘ Oh, Ian — I did have such a good time !’ she 
cried. ‘ It was so swagger, really swagger, you 
know, with duchesses and such, not just money 
and show. And I made such a delightful 
acquaintance — Sir John Berkeley.’ 

‘ What, the artist chap ?’ Ingram asked, with 
a want of reverence which made Angelique feel 
quite sick. 

‘ The painter — yes.’ For a moment she was 
too chilled to go on, then her natural buoyancy 
of spirits began to bubble up again, and she broke 
out once more. 


170 


THE ]\I0NEY SENSE 


‘ He took me in to snpper. Oh, I had such a 
good time. And he is coming to see me soon. 
And, Ian — don’t you think we might give a 
dinner, not a big one, but a very smart, exclusive 
thing, not more than twelve people ?’ 

‘Well, we might, only — where are you going 
to get twelve very smart, exclusive people ?’ Ian 
Ingram had a peculiarly irritating way of calling 
a spade a spade, more especially when the imple- 
ment was one for use in social culture, which 
sometimes drove his wife to the verge of fury. 
Angel ique, however, on this occasion took him 
quite seriously. 

‘ Ourselves, two ’ she began. 

‘Ourselves! Speak for yourself, my dear,’ he 
exclaimed, with a laugh. 

‘ Why, what do you mean, Ian ? Do you mean 
you won’ t come ?’ 

‘ Oh, no, but can you honestly call me either 
very smart or very exclusive ?’ 

‘Don’t be so silly! Ourselves, two — Colonel 
and Mrs. Lennox, four — Sir John and Gwyn, six. 
Then there are the Geoffry Hilliards — eight. Now, 
(1071*1 look like that, Ian; they are smart in their 
own way, of course they are. She writes novels, 
and he once ran away with a countess — of course 
they’re smart. They make eight. Then there 
are the two Lorimer girls, they are smart, and 


THE MONEY SENSE 171 

we must have two men. What about Bennet 
Rogers ?’ 

‘ Shady beggar; I wouldn’t risk -it,’ said Ian. 

‘ Shady, is he ? Oh, then he won’t do. Well, 
there’s Major Wilcox.’ 

‘ So prosy. ’ 

‘ True — but still, he is somebody.’ 

‘ Ask Clive Egmont; he is not playing just 
now,’ Ian suggested. 

‘ Oh yes, I never thought of him. Yes, actors 
are chic^ and Clive Egmont is very good looking. 
Then we’ll ask him. And what about the 
twelfth — we must have another man ? Is there 
nobody you want to have ?’ 

‘ A dozen it would be useful to me to ask, but 
I don’t want to spoil your party,’ he said, with 
extreme good nature. ‘ There’s Bernard Rozen- 
cratz.’ 

‘ Too Jewish.’ 

‘And Frank Barroughby.’ 

‘ Too loud. He would want to sing “ comic ” 
songs after dinner.’ 

‘ Or Mark Marcus.’ 

‘ Yes — ye — es. He might do at a pinch, but 
he certainly is not up to the level of the 
others.’ 

Finally, they decided that Mr. Marcus would 
pass muster; and having settled one or two fur- 


172 


THE MONEY SENSE 


ther points, Ian Ingram went oflf to business, 
mightily relieved in his mind to find that his wife 
had not been more desirous of knowing exactly 
how, where, and with whom he had passed the 
few hours of his absence from town. 


CHAPTER XIV 

That dinner-party, her first smart and exclu- 
sive dinner-party, was the cause of much anxious 
thought and cogitation to Angelique. She felt 
that it was the wisest step that she could take 
in fostering her acquaintance with Mrs. Lennox. 
She knew that she could not long keep Ian in the 
background ; that sooner or later he would have 
to make the acquaintance of her new friend. 
Instinct told her that the meeting had better 
take place in the evening, for Ian looked better 
in evening clothes than in any other attire. 
Then, too, it would be better that it should be in 
his own house, where he would show to far 
greater advantage than anywhere else. 

She sent out the invitations that morning, 
allowing an interval of a little more than three 
weeks. And she wrote to Gwyn and ordered 
her to come up for the great event, not a little 
to Mrs. Dodsworth’s chagrin and disgust. 

173 


174 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Truly, it was more than Mrs. Dodsworth could 
understand that Gwyn should be bidden to such 
an entertainment, while she was entirely left out 
of it. It was in vain that Gwyn explained that 
probably Angelique had thought she would not 
care about a dinner at which the entire company 
would be total strangers to her; it was in vain 
that she suggested the possibility that she had 
not liked to ask her without Mr. Dodsworth, and 
that her number was complete without him. It 
was all of no use, Mrs. Dodsworth was offended, 
and bitterly so, and made many sarcastic and 
stinging remarks as to the trials of daughters 
who were saddled with quite impossible parents 
ignorant of the ordinary conventionalities of life. 

‘ I’m quite sure Angel had no such thought as 
that,’ said Gwyn, who knew perfectly well why' 
Angelique had not invited her mother on this 
particular occasion, ‘but I will write and tell 
Angel that I cannot make it convenient to go. ’ 

‘ Not at all. I wish you to go. I wish to hear 
all about it, and you had better have a new dress 
for the occasion,’ said Mrs. Dodsworth sharply. 

So Gwyn duly went to town, and Mrs. Dods- 
worth spent the time both before and after the 
day fixed for the party in talking over the great 
event. It happened the very day before Gwyn left 
home that Angelique’s old enemy, Mrs. Williams, 


THE MONEY SENSE 


175 

arrived for the purpose of making a formal call 
on her friend. 

‘Gwyn goes to town to-morrow,’ Mrs. Dods- 
worth remarked, when she had supplied Mrs. 
Williams with tea and cake and the latest bit of 
news which had transpired in Beech Croft. 

‘ Really ? Dear me, how young people do gad 
about, to be sure,’ said Mrs. Williams. 

‘ Angelique is giving a great dinner-party next 
week,’ Mrs. Dodsworth went on, not taking the 
smallest notice of Mrs. Williams’ shaft about 
gadding. 

‘ Oh, a dinner-party. ’ 

‘ Yes — it is to be a very smart affair, quite the 
best people in London, among them the great 
painter. Sir John Berkeley.’ 

Mrs. Williams was visibly impressed; and before 
she could think of anything sufficiently hpropos 
to say, Mrs. Dodsworth meandered aimlessly on — 

‘Of course, Angelique is in the very best 
society,’ she continued, ‘and this is not even an 
ordinary affair, but something very exclusive 
indeed. She would have Gwyn go up for it. ’ 

‘ Dear me, I wonder she left you out,’ snapped 
Mrs. Williams, who had been to London several 
times since Angelique’ s marriage, but had never 
been asked within her doors. 

‘ I !’ echoed Mrs. Dodsworth, with an air which 


176 THE MONEY SENSE 

would have done justice to an actress of the first 
rank. ‘ Oh, my dear Mrs. Williams, old women 
like you and me are better away from that kind 
of thing. Gwyn is young, and enjoys a little 
change, and Angelique saw the good sense of my 
wishing Gwyn to go rather than of my doing so.’ 

‘ I daresay you think Gwyn may be picking up 
another husband,’ remarked Mrs. Williams, feeling 
that her poison-tipped arrow had flown wide of 
the mark. 

‘ Gwyn — well, do you know, I hope with all my 
heart that Gwyn will never marry again. She 
was not happy or fortunate before, and she might 
do even worse again. I’m afraid Gwyn is of 
that type which in a measure courts ill-treat- 
ment and neglect, though it seems incredible 
to me that a daughter of mine should be unhappy 
in her marriage. Still, if Gwyn were to meet 
with another Ian Ingram, I would give my consent 
with pleasure. Ah, Mrs. Williams, such a husband! 
He lives to give Angelique happiness. That dear 
man has not any thought in his mind that is not 
bounded by Angelique. Nobody will ever truly 
know the chivalry and single-heartedness of Ian 
Ingram.’ 

‘ But you know it,’ remarked Mrs. Williams. 

‘ I ? Ah, yes, but then he regards me differ- 
ently to any one else in the world. I sometimes 


THE MONEY SENSE 


177 


think he encourages Angelique in all kinds of 
extravagances and foolishness. Only the last 
time I was there I said to him that she had far 
too much of her own way. Why, my dear Mrs. 
Williams, she actually persisted in having the hall 
and staircase repapered and painted, although it 
was all new less than two years ago, and just 
because it struck her as chilly looking when she 
went in. I said to Ian, “Really, my dear boy, 
you ought not to encourage it. It is wicked 
waste to paper and paint again.” But, as he 
said, “Well, Mother dear, if Angelique wants it, 
it’s no use my saying anything, Angelique must 
have it.” And then he shrugged his shoulders 
and looked quite piteously at me, as if he would 
ask me to protect him.’ 

^ From Angelique ?’ interposed Mrs. Williams 
drily. 

‘ From his own good nature, from his inability 
to say No to any of her wishes,’ returned Mrs. 
Dodsworth with dignity. 

Now, as a matter of fact, Ian Ingram had 
never called Mrs. Dodsworth otherwise than 
by her name in his life; and her recital of 
this particular conversation was so erroneous, 
that certainly neither Mr. nor Mrs. Ian Ingram 
would have known it again had it been repeated 
to them. True, Ian Ingram did not care to 


12 


178 THE MONEY SENSE 

discuss his wife with any one, not even with 
her own mother; but a man better able to 
say No, a man better able to manage his own 
affairs, and better able to secure- his pound of 
flesh than he, would have been hard to find. 
Israel Isaacs had been long accounted, even 
among his own kind, as an Israelite of the 
Israelites. In taking the name of Ian Ingram he 
had carried with him precisely the same dis- 
position which he had borne aforetime as Israel 
Isaacs ! 

Angelique’s smart and exclusive dinner-party 
went off very well. For one awful moment after 
Colonel and Mrs. Lennox arrived, she felt that 
the host had proved to be somewhat of a 
shock; but as the excellent dinner progressed, 
and the still more excellent wines began to have 
their effect, Angelique was conscious that the 
worst was over, and that he was making quite a 
good impression on the guest of the evening. 

Angelique herself was very happy. Sir John 
had taken her in to dinner, and Colonel Lennox 
sat on her other hand. She was indeed a proud 
woman, and looked radiantly happy and ex- 
tremely handsome. Angelique was not a young 
woman who looked handsome under all circum- 
stances, by no means indeed. She had ever a 
certain style and chic of her own, always the 


THE MONEY SENSE 


179 


same wealth of sunshiny bright hair, always the 
same wide-open, inquiring grey eyes; but her 
face was one which showed fatigue, annoyance, 
distress, and indeed any emotion or sensation, as 
plainly as a barometer indicates the state of the 
weather, and it was only when her mental 
balance pointed to ‘set fair’ that she gave 
the impression of being a singularly handsome 
woman. 

Gwyn sat on Sir John’s left hand, and Colonel 
Lennox had taken the lady whose husband had 
once run away with a countess. The rest of the 
company were paired off as seemed most suitable 
to Angelique’s judgment. 

It was certainly a success. Mrs. Lennox said 
a civil thing or two to the lady novelist, and 
spoke of her last book sufficiently to make her 
believe that she had read it. She had not done 
so, but she had seen a paragraph about it in 
some lady’s journal, and having an excellent 
memory — as all true society people have — she 
used her bit of information with the best possible 
effect. Then she had a little talk with Gwyn, 
told her how charmed she was with her sister, 
and begged her to come and see her very soon 
indeed. After that she dropped a few judicious 
words of praise into Angelique’s ear anent the 
excellence and smoothness of the dinner, and 


i8o THE MONEY SENSE 


almost immediately after the men came in from 
the dining-room melted quietly away, carrying 
her colonel with her. 

‘So very sorry to go, my dear,’ she whis- 
pered to Angelique, ‘but I promised Lady Theo 
most faithfully not to be later than eleven, and 
it is close on that time now. Good-bye — good- 
bye.’ 

It was rather a blow to Angelique, but still 
she had had the glory of entertaining her, and 
Sir John showed no signs of desiring to move. 
He attached himself unmistakably to her, and 
the man who had once run away with a countess 
offered to sing something, and sang the newest 
comic song in the most pronouncedly music-hall 
style, to Sir John’s evident delight. 

‘ Dear — dear — what a pity Mrs. Lennox did not 
stay to hear this!’ he chuckled to Angelique, 
who in her heart was unspeakably thankful 
that Mrs. Lennox was safely out of the house; 
‘ she simply revels in this sort of thing. You 
must give a little afternoon, and get your friend 
to come and sing us all his newest songs. I 
must get you to let me bring the Duchess ’ 

‘What, the old lady who spoke to you the 
other night ?’ Angelique asked in amazement. 

‘ Oh, no, that was the Duchess of Twyford. I 
meant the young Duchess of Sevenoaks. She’ll 


THE MONEY SENSE i8i 


nail him for her next big crush to a certainty, 
and tell every one she paid him fifty guineas for 
coming.’ 

‘ Oh, you are chaffing me,’ cried Angelique. 

‘ On my soul. I’m not. Look here, get that 
good fellow to fix a date now — and only ask a 
few people. ’ 

‘ Why a few ?’ 

‘ Oh, a few are so much nicer, and it makes 
those who are asked think so much more of it. 
You ask any one and every one to a crush.’ 

‘ I don’t think the Duchess of Sevenoaks would 
feel flattered at my asking her however I did it,’ 
said Angelique, laughing outright. 

‘ I’ll bring her. If she ts fixed up — but she 
won’t be — at least, she will throw over anything 
to suit herself; I’ll give a little party in my 
studio ’ 

‘Oh! I should like to see .your studio,’ 
Angelique burst out. 

‘ You shall do that in any case, of course,’ said 
Sir John in his impressive way, just as if he and 
his studio were equally and irrevocably at Mrs. 
Ian Ingram’s service. 

And Angelique did get Mr. Galbraith to fix a 
date then and there on which she might give a 
small and very select afternoon party, whereat 
he would sing all his newest songs. Mr. 


i 82 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Galbraith was a man who loved to show himself 
independently of his wife’s position as a novelist. 
He had done many things in the hope of gaining 
notoriety, both before and after his marriage to 
the famous Miss Danelli, and in most instances 
bis attempts had been more or less abortive. 
Starting life with a modest private fortune, he 
had tried the militia, a varsity, the stage, and 
running away with a countess. The militia had 
not proved quite as easy an opening to the 
regular service as he had been led to believe; at 
Brasenose he had somehow failed to find his 
social level, while he had but too surely found 
his intellectual level at the very bottom; the 
stage had rejected him with ignominy after he 
had done six months in a certain celebrated 
provincial company, better known among ‘pro- 
pros’ as ‘The Creche.’ And the countess had, 
long before the Divorce Court had set her free 
to enter into new matrimonial schemes, taken 
so appallingly to drink and bad language, that 
he had no inducement to figure before the world 
in yet another character — that of a man of 
honour. So he and the d-devant countess parted 
company, with relief on one side, and many 
recriminations and objurgations on the other. 
And for a time he had floated around the bye- 
ways of that curious mixture which we call 


THE MONEY SENSE 183 

London Society wholly and solely on the strength 
of the fact that he was the man who had run 
away with Lady Desborough. 

It was this fact that had won him the hand of 
the famous Miss Danelli, And she was famous, 
for her novels were remarkable for their vivid 
portrayals of unadulterated lust and passion. 
Old-fashioned mothers forbade any novel by Miss 
Danelli to be brought into their houses; young 
matrons read them, but stuffed them under the 
sofa cushions instead of laying them down on 
the nearest table; men quoted them to the 
women with whom they wanted to be on terms 
of careless and familiar ease; everybody who 
was anybody wanted to see the author of Twin 
Souls; but only a small minority cared to make 
her acquaintance, and nobody seemed desperately 
anxious to marry her. 

Then Willy Galbraith got to know her, and 
the two notorieties were mutually attracted. 
Yet, although he was very much in love with 
his wife, the marriage was not a little of a 
disappointment to Willy Galbraith, for his notor- 
iety as ‘ Miss Danelli’s husband ’ was a very much 
less pronounced one than he had imagined it 
would be. So Willy Galbraith was ready and wil- 
ling to take up any line which would give him 
a place of his own, and take him from under the 


i 84 the money sense 

shadow of his wife’s wing, without disturbing the 
amicability of their relations to each other. 
Angelique dropped a vague hint about the possi- 
bility of the Duchess coming, though she did not 
herself believe it for a single moment. Still, she 
felt that Mrs. Lennox and Sir John were indis- 
putable facts such as could not be gainsaid. 

And, after all, the Duchess did not come. 
She wrote a characteristic note to Sir John 
expressive of the most intense regret at her 
inability to avail herself of Mrs. Ingram’s invi- 
tation. He showed her the note : — 

‘Dear Sir John,’ it said, ‘to my disgust, I 
cannot manage anyhow to come. We have got to 
go to Windsor to dine with the Old Lady; and if 
one isn’t in good time, or misses the train, one 
would come in for all sorts of horrors. The 
Duke says in his circumstances we must be extra 
careful, and run no risk. Tell your friend Mrs. 
Ingram how utterly sorry I am, and say I hope 
to have a chance later on. I love coster songs. — 
Ever yours, Elizabeth Sevenoaks.’ 

‘What are his circumstances?’ Angelique 
asked. 

‘ He is Master of the Horse.’ 

‘ Oh.’ For a moment she was vexed at having 
so plainly shown her ignorance, then she looked 


THE MONEY. SENSE 1S5 

up at him with an enchanting smile. ‘ I shall 
never know all these things,’ she said with 
charming frankness, ‘ I’m sure duchesses and 
I will never amalgamate.’ 

‘ Oh, you and she will mix right enough,’ said 
Sir John, who set no particular store by duchesses. 
To him they were purely ornamental; his most 
useful friends were to be found in the city. 

But the little party was a great success, as 
great a success as the dinner had been, and the 
fame of Mrs. Ian Ingram’s newly acquired ex- 
clusiveness soon began to spread itself abroad 
among the tribes of the faithful. Still, it must 
be owned that on the whole she did not lose 
by it, and Ian Ingram found himself daily taking 
a different and a better position among his 
compeers in the city. 

And the Duchess did make her appearance 
about a fortnight later at a little party given in 
Sir John’s studio, a little party at which Willy 
Galbraith sang seven or eight times, and received 
as much adulation as if he had been at least a 
Paderewski, a party at which Angelique was 
specially introduced to the great Lady as the one 
to whom she owed this especial treat. 

‘And it was you who found out Willy Galbraith,’ 
said the Duchess bluntly, ‘you lucky woman. 

I should be off my head almost if I could trot 


i86 THE MONEY SENSE 

round and call a new star mine. But then I am 
not lucky.’ 

The thought which flashed into Angelique’s 
mind was that of a certainty some people are 
never satisfied. Here was a young woman, none 
too good-looking, who had won the biggest prize 
in the matrimonial stakes, but who yet evidently 
was in the habit of speaking of and thinking of 
herself as an unlucky person. Truly, life is a 
very curious study. 


CHAPTER XV 

The friendship between Angelique and Sir John 
Berkeley grew and throve apace. To Angelique 
it was particularly sweet, and helped to gloss 
over the pain left by Ian Ingram’s defections as 
perhaps nothing else would have done. With him 
and through him she went to many places which 
in the past had been sealed to her. Many very 
smart and exclusive ladies who would never have 
looked at Ian Ingram’s wife were glad enough 
to know Sir John Berkeley’s latest friend; and 
many others, who would have sniffed at her as 
Sir John Berkeley’s friend, were extremely glad 
to hold out the hand of friendship to any one 
who was vouched for by such a very smart and 
exclusive woman as Mrs. Lennox. 

And yet, Angelique was not altogether pros- 
perous in her relations to society; she yearned 
more and more after duchesses and such large 
game; though when she did find herself hob- 

187 


i88 


THE MONEY SENSE 


nobbing with them, she was, on the whole, miser- 
ably uncomfortable. She was always haunted 
by a feeling that she was only tolerated for Sir 
John’s sake, and that if any one of these great 
ladies chanced to catch sight of the little Jewish 
husband in the background, that one would im- 
mediately take fright, and a thick line in red 
chalk would soon be found in the titled engage- 
ment book. At times an intense longing came 
over her that she should be bidden to these ladies’ 
homes by right, and not as a matter of toleration; 
and there were moments when she regretted her 
marriage with a fierce impotent regret so strong 
that it threatened more than once completely to 
overwhelm her. For Sir John was a slave to her, 
he pitied her more than words could express, 
openly speaking of her as a deeply wronged and 
ill-used woman, cast like pearls before swine, and 
entirely unappreciated by the little Israelite to 
whom she had entrusted her life. 

‘ However,’ he said to her one day, when they 
had just arranged to go to Ascot together, 
‘there is one alleviating circumstance in your 
lot, Ingram is good-natured in letting you go 
your own way and in giving you a free hand ; it 
would be very different if he were of an exacting 
and jealous turn, and would not let you out of 
his sight.’ ' 


THE MONEY SENSE 189 

‘ Oh, Ian occupies himself with other gods,’ 
cried Angelique bitterly. ‘So long as I will 
entertain his city interests now and again, he is 
happier when I am out of his way.’ 

‘ That is impossible,’ said Sir John promptly. 

‘ Not at all. You would think it would be im- 
possible that my husband could ’ She had 

been on the point of adding ‘ look at my servant,’ 
but prudently broke the end of the sentence oflf 
sharp and looked at Sir John with her wide-open, 
lovely eyes, contrition plainly expressed in every 
line of her speaking face. ‘ I ought not to have 
said that,’ she exclaimed in penitent tones. 

‘ After all, Ian has been very good to me. If he 
is not quite perfect — well, who is? Perhaps I 
expect too much of him.’ 

The painter caught her hand in his and held it 
hard for a minute. ‘Angelique,’ he said huskily, 
‘you are a noblewoman; you can still find an 
excuse for him who systematically and shame- 
fully neglects you. My dear, my dear, it is cruel 
to think that you have been thrown away upon 
such a man. Angelique — Angelique — if only we 
had met a little sooner — if only I could make up 
to you for all that is wanting in your life. Oh, 
Angelique, if only you were free. ’ 

An idea shot into Angelique’s mind — she sat 
stunned and paralysed by the immensity of the 


190 


THE MONEY SENSE 


possibility which the future held out to her at 
that moment. Gently she tried to draw her hand 
away, but Sir John held it fast within his own, 
and looked at her with his handsome face all 
alight with love and quivering with emotion. 

‘ My dear — my dear,’ he said, ‘ Fate is very cruel 
to us,’ and then he bent his courtly grey head 
and kissed the hand he held with an air of devo- 
tion, as he might have kissed the hem of a 
saint’s garment. 

Long after he had left her, Angelique sat there 
silent and preoccupied. Wild and angry thoughts 
went fleeting swiftly through her brain, thoughts 
that seemed to chase one another aimlessly like 
bats at night. And above all one burden rang — 
one regret — one echo of all the past pain of her 
life — why, why, had this great chance of happi- 
ness come to her too late? If only .she had 
known of this when she had found out the truth 
about Millicent, she might by this time have 
been a free woman, free, and able to become Sir 
John Berkeley’s wife, safe for ever in the one 
sphere to which by nature she belonged. 

From that day Angelique looked upon Sir John 
Berkeley with a different eye. He was no longer 
her slave, her favourite ‘man,’ the stepping-stone 
to a smarter ‘ swim ’ than she had ever before 
found herself in. No, he was the possibility of 


THE MONEY SENSE 191 

the future, in his hands lay the making or marr- 
ing of her whole life; for if she should ever find 
herself Lady Berkeley, she would be at once at 
the top of the tree, secure against all future 
storms, safe in a shelter which would be at once 
congenial and delightful. 

If only she could successfully get rid of Ian 
Ingram ! 

Never for a single moment did any idea of her- 
self breaking the bond between them arise in 
Angelique’s busy mind. She had no passion to 
battle against. Hers was a cold nature which 
put worldly before personal considerations 
always; and in thinking of Sir John as a possible 
husband for herself, she was moved wholly and 
solely by the worldly advantages that would 
accrue to her from such an alliance. Therefore, 
it never occurred to her to curb any of those 
desires and extravagances which come into the 
lives of all women who are bent upon getting 
into a higher sphere than that to which they are 
entitled by birth or marriage. Ian Ingram was 
inclined to hold his peace and let her take her 
own pace, and Angel ique saw no reason why the 
pace should not be a brisk one. 

At this time she did not have much intercourse 
with the home people. Mrs. Dodsworth fretted 
and worried not a little; but Angelique had from 


192 


THE MONEY SENSE 


the very first trained her relations not to make 
an hotel of her house, and only to go there when 
they were invited, so Mrs. Dodsworth’s fretting 
and worrying did not count for very much. 
Angelique had now plenty of smart people to 
make up her dinner-parties, and had no need to 
bring Gwyn up from the country for the purpose 
of filling a chair with her gentle presence. And 
of a surety Angelique went the pace — and that 
pace a brisk one. There were people in the 
Jewish community who wondered not a little 
that Ian Ingram v/as able to live as he did, to 
allow his wife to dress like a great lady of fashion, 
to give dinners and parties of all kinds, to let 
money pour out like water on every hand. But 
Ian Ingram himself seemed to notice nothing, he 
expressed no fears, uttered no warnings, never 
attempted in the smallest degree to slip the drag 
on the wheels of the matrimonial chariot. 

Nor was the reason far to seek — no further, 
indeed, than a little box of a house in naughty 
North Bank, where the whilom parlour maid, 
Millicent Page, lived in semi-retirement, and 
was called ‘ Mrs. Desmond.’ 

The house in naughty North Bank was con- 
venient, but it was very expensive; its rent was 
within a few pounds of the more commodious 
residence just across the broad road which 


THE MONEY SENSE 


193 


marks out the highly respectable district of 
Maida Vale from the questionable shades of St. 
John’s Wood. The secluded bit of garden was 
beautifully kept up, for Millicent had developed 
a very pretty taste in floriculture; the house 
was very well tended by a couple of neat maid- 
servants; but the modesty of this part of the 
establishment was supplemented by a severely 
haughty white-garbed person who lived upstairs, 
and who might have been seen any fine morning 
or afternoon in charge of a luxurious baby 
carriage painted and upholstered entirely in 
white, and occupied by a little person who was 
ordinarily spoken of as ‘ Miss Baby.’ Occasion- 
ally Millicent herself went out with Miss Baby 
and the haughty attendant, but this did not 
happen often. Ian Ingram had no fancy for a 
furious scene with Angelique, or for bringing his 
legitimate establishment to a sudden end. He 
still lived in hopes of a son born in wedlock, a 
little Ian Ingram, who would one day take his 
place in the world, and reap the full benefit of 
having had the advantage of a Christian mother. 
So, for this reason, Ian Ingram was content to 
let Angelique go her own way, more especially 
as she seemed perfectly and equally contented to 
let him go his. 

Angelique at this lime did not trouble her 
13 


194 the money sense 

husband much for ready money. Indeed, her 
crop of debts had got so large that it was a 
comparatively easy matter for her to live upon 
herself— or upon them. It would be hard to say 
whether she had at this time any adequate 
realisation that a day would come sooner or 
later in which these debts would have to be paid. 
She went on the principle of having anything 
that she wished for in the present and of letting 
the future take care of itself. When she was 
hard pressed for money she had recourse to 
various means of getting it. She would intimate 
in an oflfhand and casual kind of way to Ian that 
.he might let her have some money. She always 
spoke in a quite careless way, as if his compli- 
ance was a matter of the most absolute indiffer- 
ence to her. Usually this had the effect of 
drawing twenty or twenty-five pounds from Ian 
Ingram’s pockets, and was but a drop in the 
ocean of Angelique’s liabilities. Once or twice 
he had to put her off, on which occasions Angel- 
ique always said in her most slighting manner, 
‘ Oh, don’t put yourself out over it. If it’s not 
convenient to you. I’ll tell my people to wait.’ 

She always did tell her ‘people’ to wait, as a 
matter of principle. Sometimes she doled out a 
cheque for ten or twenty pounds, when she 
invariably ordered more things so as to keep 


THE MONEY SENSE 


195 


them in good temper, but she never made such 
doles until she could no longer put oflf the evil 
day. But there are times in the lives of all 
traders, even the most distinguished in the West 
End, when large bills must be reduced; and when 
Angel ique found herself face to face with such 
emergencies as these, and Ian was not inclined 
to pay down handsomely without asking any 
questions, she had need to fly to more desperate 
subterfuges. Once she took the whole of her 
jewellery to a great establishment for the manu- 
facturing of diamonds ‘ warranted impossible of 
detection,’ and she had exact copies made of 
every article of value that she was possessed of. 
They were not many, but they were good — a 
single-stone diamond necklace, a set of five 
diamond stars, a pretty thing in the shape of a 
high comb for the hair, set with diamonds and 
several large pearls, half a dozen brooches, and 
eight or nine handsome rings. The entire lot of 
duplicates cost her fifty pounds, and she sold the 
originals for four hundred and fifty pounds, thus 
leaving a surplus of four hundred pounds after 
defraying the cost of the imitation substitutes 
for her jewels. That four hundred pounds served 
Angelique in good stead, and enabled her to keep 
her credit at high-water mark for quite a long 
time. It is astonishing, if you happen to have a 


196 THE MONEY SENSE 

fine flourishing crop of debts, what a sum like 
four hundred pounds judiciously meted out will 
do towards staving them off. Angelique found 
this so, and went on spending more extrava- 
gantly than ever! There were times in Ian 
Ingram’s life when he fairly opened his eyes in 
surprise at the way in which Millicent Page had 
taken to her position as mistress of the little 
house in North Bank, when he could hardly 
believe that the quiet, elegant, and ultra-digni- 
fied Mrs. Desmond had ever handed his plates at 
dinner, and worn the cap and apron which were 
the badge and token of servitude. But any 
strides which Millicent had made towards a life 
of luxury with ease and accustomedness had 
been far surpassed by Angelique’s feats in that 
direction. 

Angelique had long ago come to regard two 
hundred a year as a perfectly preposterous and 
impossible sum upon which to dress, and spent 
three or four times that amount with the 
greatest composure, feeling indeed that Ian 
ought to be highly gratified that his wife was a 
woman able and willing to exercise unheard-of 
economies. 

Nor was dress Angelique’s chiefest cause of 
outlay. She was free and lavish in many other 
directions. Besides making a collection of old 


THE MONEY SENSE 


197 


china, she had started a silver table. Now a 
silver table is a very costly business in which to 
indulge, and Angelique was not one to begin 
such a fad without doing it well. Her silver 
table was the envy and admiration of all her 
acquaintances, and many were the pilgrimages 
which she and Sir John made to all sorts of 
strange out-of-the-way places in search of new 
treasures for the enrichment of her collection. 
Some of her most precious pieces were gifts from 
him, but others were ‘ finds ’ of her own which 
she had picked up by way of letting him see 
what a clever and discriminating bric-a-brac 
hunter she was; and these finds of Angelique’s 
were not usually remarkable for their cheapness. 
She loved to make what she called ‘little 
presents ’ to her friends — a fan here, a posy of 
fresh flowers there, a big palm in a smart pot for 
a birthday, a box for a theatre out of sheer 
friendliness. All these things gave Angelique a 
certain weight and importance in her set, but 
they cost money, and helped her bills to run up 
marvellously. 

Some women would have troubled about them 
— not so Angelique. She floated on her way 
apparently untroubled by her liabilities. Indeed, 
if the truth be told, there was only one thing 
that did worry her at this time, which was the 


198 THE MONEY SENSE 

fact that she was married to Ian Ingram. With 
every day that went over her head she felt more 
and more that Sir John Berkeley was the only 
man in the whole world who could give her all 
that she wanted; she felt that he was the only 
one who could make her happy, and free her 
from the taint of the City and the shackles of her 
Jewish marriage. She grew to hate and detest 
every shade and clan of the Israelitish community 
with a hatred which was the most intense feeling 
she had ever experienced, and she longed to be 
rid of Ian and his set, of the house in Maida 
Vale, and all the associations of her married life, 
with a feverish restlessness, which was a thousand 
times as great as that with which she had once 
longed to shake off the shackles of her mother 
and her home life. She always felt when she 
found herself in Sir John’s beautiful studio as if 
she had got home after wandering. She always 
felt when with him a sense of rest and peace 
such as she knew at no other time. And yet 
Angelique was not in the very smallest degree 
in love with Sir John Berkeley, and would not 
have compromised herself with him for all the 
riches of the Orient. Whatever her faults, weak- 
nesses, and failings, without doubt Angelique 
Ingram’s passions were held well in check. 


CHAPTER XVI 

The season came to an end, and time went on. 
Angelique had been married more than two 
years, and everything between her and Ian 
seemed to be fairly tranquil. But it was only that 
calm which immediately precedes a storm. Ian’s 
complacency was caused by two circumstances — 
firstly, the fact that he did not know of the money 
Angelique was spending; secondly, by a certain 
amount of shame at the thought of the maison- 
ette in naughty North Bank. 

Shame, did I say ? Well, that word scarcely 
describes the feeling. It was rather a latent 
sense of compunction, a realisation of the fact 
that he had deliberately tricked Angelique, a sort 
of self-blame that Millicent’s child had lived and 
Angelique’s had, owing to no fault of her own, 
been born dead. Ian Ingram was not a man who 
would have denied himself one jot of pleasure or 
the gratification of a single appetite; but he cer- 

199 


200 


THE MONEY SENSE 


tainly did, out of that curious notion of wrong- 
doing, give Angelique ten times as much rope as 
he would have done under any ordinary circum- 
stances. 

Autumn passed over without anything unusual 
happening. Angelique went to Aix-les-Bains, 
and thence to Switzerland, travelling with a 
friend, and meeting Sir John Berkeley at various 
places on the way. Ian Ingram went to Scot- 
land, carrying Mrs. Desmond with him. 

It seems odd that such a man should ever wish 
to go to Scotland, and more odd that he should 
want to take a woman of Mrs. Desmond’s class 
to such a cold and dour country, among such a 
straight-laced and austere people. She said that 
she enjoyed it, and perhaps she did, though it 
seems unlikely on the face of it. Then when the 
autumn was far advanced, and Angelique found 
herself back at the house in Maida Vale, ready to 
get through the early winter season, something 
happened to disturb the everyday current of 
events. 

For by a strange chance it came about that 
Angelique, going one day to the view of a sale of 
curios, came face to face with Ian Ingram, who 
was escorting Mrs. Desmond, better known to 
Angelique as the ex-parlour maid,Millicent Page. 

It had happened in this way. Millicent had 


THE MONEY SENSE 


201 


been especially anxious to go to this particular 
sale, for she too, like her betters, had her collect- 
ing fads. Old lace was one of them, and snuff- 
boxes another. So far as the old lace was con- 
cerned, it was a harmless fad enough, and Milli- 
cent was the proud possessor of a few scraps of 
yellow old lace which she had picked up cheap, 
and of whose authenticity even she was doubtful. 
The other fad was a more serious matter; snuff- 
boxes, like old silver, run into money; and Milli- 
cent, though very careful how she trod the thorny 
path of life under the protection of Ian Ingram, 
was distinctly of a grasping and rapacious nature. 
At first Ian had declared it impossible that he 
could go with her to the sale. From the very 
beginning of their setting up house together he 
had exercised great care in going about with 
Millicent, having no wish for an esclandre on 
her account. Then he remembered, or rather 
Millicent reminded him of it, that it was Angeli- 
que’s at home day, and in consequence therefore 
she was not likely to be out. 

Angelique, however, had become much more 
offhand of late in her dealings with society, and 
when, after luncheon. Sir John Berkeley came 
hurrying in, bringing with him the news of this 
wonderful sale, she determined to leave a pretty 
message for any possible callers, and to gratify 


202 


THE MONEY SENSE 


herself by going with Sir John to see how much 
more money she might be able to get rid of. 
And almost the first person that she saw was her 
quondam parlour maid Millicent Page, dressed 
like a fashion plate, and walking along with a 
very proprietorial air beside her husband, Ian 
Ingram! Mistress and ex-maid met in the crush 
of one of those crowds when people are for a 
minute or two wedged up together and cannot 
move one way or another. For one awful 
moment Angelique stared with her wide-open 
indignant eyes straight into Millicent’ s face. 
Then she turned round to Sir John and said, in 
a terribly distinct voice, ‘ Will you be kind 
enough to take me home ? This is no place for 
me.’ 

He had her out of the crowd and into the 
carriage in less than no time. ‘ I may come with 
you ?’ he asked, in his most deferential tones. 

Angelique turned her head, her eyes were 
blazing fiercely, and a brilliant red spot flamed 
on either cheek. ‘Oh yes, please do. Don’t 
desert me just now when I’ve had such a crush- 
ing blow as this.’ 

Sir John got quietly into the carriage after 
giving the direction ‘Home’ to the coachman. 
‘ Angelique,’ he said, ‘ who was that lady ? Why 
has the sight of her made you so angry ?’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


203 


‘That — lady^' said Angelique bitterly, ‘was 
once my parlour maid — my servant. Her name 
is Millicent Page. She murdered my poor little 
child. She is Ian’s mistress.’ 

‘ What are you going to do ?’ 

‘ To do? Listen to me, Sir John; I never told 
you before, but that woman is my — rivals ’ with 
a bitter laugh — ‘ my rival with my own husband. 
I forgave it once, for I had not been married a 
year, and I was anxious to get on with him if I 
could. But he was or seemed so penitent — so 
anxious to avoid anything like a breach, and he 
was apparently so anxious to do everything to 
please me, and he promised to give her up for 
good and all ; he swore that she had never been 
anything but a — but a — convenience to him.’ 
She bent her head until he could scarcely see her 
face, only the shamed blush which stained one 
burning cheek. 

‘The fellow’s a sweep — a bad hat — he can’t 
help it,’ said Sir John curtly. ‘But what are 
you going to do ?’ 

* I don’t know — I’m a miserable woman. I 
suppose I shall have to go back and swallow my 
pride and my sense of outraged decency as best 
I can,’ Angelique replied brokenly. ‘I have 
nobody to stand by me, nobody to see me through 
it. My father and mother are old-fashioned 


204 THE MONEY SENSE 

people, who don’t understand such tragedies as 
these; they would say at once that it must of 
necessity be mostly, if not all, my fault. The 
only brother who would be of the smallest use to 
me is on the other side of the world. I am per- 
fectly helpless; I have absolutely nobody to stand 
by me in all the world.’ 

‘Angelique,’ said Sir John, taking her hand 
and holding it firmly in his own, ‘ you are mis- 
taken in one thing. You have one friend who is 
ready and willing to stand by you through thick 
and thin! You don’t surely suppose that after 
we have been such friends — you and I — I would 
desert you at a time when you have been be- 
trayed by the man who ought to think it his 
proudest privilege to cherish and protect you ?’ 

‘ I — I — you are very good,’ said Angelique, in 
a very humble tone. ‘ I — I don’t know how to 
thank you enough. Sir John. But I have to 
think of the future — I cannot live on nothin? — 
and I would rather die than go home again to 
that narrow, cramped provincial life — I — I ’ 

‘The future shall be my care,’ said Sir John 
briefly. ‘The only question for you to decide 
now is whether you will go back or not. ’ 

‘I would rather die,’ Angelique flashed out, 
then bent her head and burst into a passion of 
tears. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


205 


The result of it all was that when, having got 
rid of Millicent, Ian Ingram went home that he 
might face Angelique and get the worst over, he 
found her sitting in the hall watching her boxes 
, being taken out of the house. 

‘ Hullo, what’s the meaning of this ?’ he asked 
blankly. 

‘ Only that I am going to make way for the 
other one ’ returned Angelique promptly; ‘ you 
did not expect to find me dressing for dinner, did 
you ?’ 

‘ But you are not going away ?’ in an astonished 
tone. 

‘ Of course, I am. I overlooked your affair 
with that creature once, but not a second time — 
oh, no.’ 

‘ What are you going to do ?’ he asked blankly. 

‘ That you will hear soon enough from my 
lawyers,’ replied Angelique, in a voice of ice. 

‘ Your lawyers — what — you’re going to ex- 
tremes ?’ 

‘ You will hear in good time,’ she said, with a 
sneer. 

‘ But — but you got over it before ’ 

‘ And relied on your word that you had done 
with the creature, that she was nothing to you,’ 
Angelique cried, in a scofiSng tone. ‘ And the 
greater fool I to do it, I might have known 


2o6 the money sense 


better than to trust the honour of 2.— Jew f I 
should have asked for your bond, your written 
bondi* 

‘ I had a duty to her, ’ he broke out. 

‘ To her — then keep it — fulfil it. She is wel- 
come to all that you can do for her now. Perhaps, 
by and by, you will even be able to make an 
honest woman of her — when I have quite done 
with you. ’ 

For a moment there was intense silence be- 
tween them. Angelique stood facing her hus- 
band, a cold sneer on her death-pale face. 
Through Ian Ingram’s mind there raced a hundred 
different thoughts, consternation and fury upper- 
most of all in that he had been fool enough to 
compromise himself by going to so public a place 
with Millicent. He realised that all was over 
between himself and Angelique ; that this elegant, 
imperious Christian woman would have no part 
nor lot in his future life; that he would be openly 
disgraced before his whole race, his own people. 
Then he thought, by one of those strange freaks 
which move us at the most unlikely times, of the 
difference between the two — between Millicent 
and Angelique— of how the one had been all fire 
and half- veiled contempt and arrogance, the other 
meek, satisfied, and full of clinging affection; he 
thought in that bitter moment of how the one had 


THE MONEY SENSE 2o^ 

borne a living, and the other a dead child; and 
then a great rush of passion and mad anger over- 
came him, and he turned almost before he knew 
what he was doing, and struck Angelique across 
the face. ‘ There’s your cruelty, ’ he said brutally ; 
‘ now you have your case complete.’ 

It happened that Angelique’s maid came down 
the stairs just as the blow fell. Angelique 
staggered back, catching at the nearest chair for 
support. ‘You saw that, Rosine?’she said, in 
a shaking voice to the woman. 

‘Yes, ma’am, I’m sorry , to say I did,’ was the 
quick reply. ‘ Come let me take you away; this 
is no place for you.’ 

She took Angelique by the arm and led her out 
to the brougham, which was still waiting. 

‘Keep up, ma’am, don’t give way,’ she 
murmured soothingly. ‘It’s hard to bear, but 
it’s no good to give way. ’ 

So Angelique, with that livid mark of shame 
across her fair face, passed, supported by her 
maid, out of her husband’s house for ever. But 
in her heart of hearts there was no shame and 
but little anger, for the Fates had played into her 
hands just as she had hoped they would do, and 
everything had fallen out as perfectly as if she 
had planned it. 


CHAPTER XVII 

It is a comparatively easy matter to get a 
divorce when you have a clear case to carry into 
Court. The day after the fatal meeting between 
Angeliqueand Millicent, Sir John Berkeley took 
Mrs. Ian Ingram to his own lawyers. The mem- 
bers of the firm, who managed such cases, heard 
the details with grave attention, and remarked, 
it must be admitted with a certain air of disap- 
pointment — 

‘ A simple case ! Mr. Ingram will hardly 
trouble to defend it.’ 

‘ What do you mean by a simple case ?’ 
Angelique asked rather indignantly. To her 
there was no simplicity in the matter at all. 

The astute man of law smiled. ‘I mean 
that — from our point of view — it is not likely to 
be an interesting case, a cause cH^bre ! You 
have the whole of the necessary evidence ready- 
made, all cut and dried. Your husband will 
hardly trouble to defend it. It can only be a 
question of waiting a few months.’ 

208 


THE MONEY SENSE 


209 


‘ I see what you mean,’ said Angelique, with a 
grave air of dignity. ‘ But although it may be 
very disappointing for you to have to take up a 
case which is quite simple and not likely to be 
interesting, I have no desire, I can assure you, 
to be the heroine of a cause cH^bre. I am only 
too thankful that it is a simple case.’ 

‘My dear madam,’ said the man of law, ‘you 
mistake me entirely. I only meant to convey 
that it would be a case involving no trouble; 
that it is all clear from the beginning. We shall 
have great pleasure in carrying it through, but 
the end is a foregone conclusion — it is merely a 
question of time.’ 

Now, that was precisely the truth. Angelique 
found that it was not possible to do anything till 
the following sessions, and that even then she 
would have to take her fair turn with any similar 
cases that might be waiting. And when the 
trial had come and gone, there would still be the 
painful and dangerous period of waiting until the 
decree nisi should be made absolute. So the 
best part of a year would be gone before there 
was the very smallest possibility of her being 
transformed into Eady Berkeley. 

She felt that she would have to live very 
quietly, very circumspectly, and very warily until 
M 


210 


THE MONEY SENSE 


she had really obtained her freedom, or she 
might lose the great chance of her life. And 
as she was fully determined to let nothing, short 
of death, come in between her and Sir John 
Berkeley, she laid down the lines of her life so 
as to live in such a manner as would be above 
reproach in the eyes of the whole world. 

On leaving her husband’s house she had taken 
up her quarters at a quiet hotel for the night ; 
and as soon as she had seen the lawyers and 
made sure that her chance of winning her case 
was a good one, she set about looking for nice 
rooms in a quiet part of the town, and having 
found them, she then telegraphed for Gwyn to 
come to her at once. 

Not a little to her dismay, Gwyn arrived in 
company with Mrs. Dodsworth, who held forth 
on the subject of Angelique’s trouble, until 
Angelique was almost driven out of her mind 
with irritation and the despair of having another 
quiet moment till all was over. 

‘ My dear Mother,’ she said at last, ‘ It’s of no 
use your ragging it all over and explaining it, or 
even your talking about it. Ian chose to take 
my parlour maid Millicent, and to put her in a 
different capacity in a smart maisonette in St. 
John’s Wood. There’s a regular establishment 
kept up, and a baby and all that. Ian was kind 


THE MONEY SENSE 


2II 


enough to me until I found out about this crea- 
ture, and then he struck me across the face. 
Now, you know everything that there is to 
know. ’ 

‘ But it seems impossible to me,’ Mrs. Dods- 
worth persisted, sitting in an attitude of helpless 
dejection, and gazing with vague pathos at 
Angelique, ‘that any man, especially Ian, who 
was so devoted to me, could treat a daughter of 
mine in such a way as that.’ 

Angelique laughed outright. ‘ Oh, my dear 
Mother, what earthly difference can my being a 
daughter of yours make in such a matter as this ? 
What has being your daughter ever done for me ? 
The fact that I was your daughter did not keep 
my first love true to me, nor make me a success 
on the stage, nor did it, nor was it at all likely to 
prevent Ian from making love to one of my own 
servants.’ 

‘ I cannot understand it,’ said Mrs. Dodsworth, 
looking round with a childlike air of confusion 
and lack of understanding, such as sat strangely 
on her ample and matronly person. 

‘ Well, then, don’t try; don’t think about it at 
all,’ rejoined Angelique, fast losing any semblance 
of patience. ‘It was a pity you came up; I 
asked Gwyn to come, not you.’ 

‘ Your telegram sounded like trouble,’ said Mrs. 


212 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Dodsworth, seeking for her handkerchief, while 
her large face underwent many curious and 
pathetic contortions, ‘ and who should come if you 
were in trouble but your own mother ? I am sure I 
came with the very best and kindest intentions, 
Angelique, and you only snap at me. It’s very 
hard on me to have my daughter suddenly turned 
out of her beautiful home and ’ 

‘Yes, yes. Mother, I know all that,’ said 
Angelique, trying hard to be patient and for- 
bearing. ‘ But you mustn’t forget that the shock 
of the whole affair has been simply appalling to 
me. Two days ago I had no more idea of any- 
thing happening between Ian and me than I had 
of anything happening between you and Dad. As 
to being turned out of my house, he didn’t go so 
far as that, or even wish me to go. He struck 
me because he saw that I meant going, and he 
thought he might as well make my case com- 
plete. Ian never uttered an unkind word to me 
till Tuesday afternoon. ’ 

* But, Angelique, my dear, why take such a 
harsh course?’ cried Mrs. Dodsworth eagerly. 
‘What is to become of you? You’ll never be 
satisfied to come home and live as we do. We 
can’t give you a maid and a brougham and all 
the rest of it.’ 

A sudden ribald remembrance of Mrs. Dods- 


THE MONEY SENSE 


213 


worth’s airy descriptions in the old days of the 
luxuries at Beech Croft shot through Angelique’s 
troubled mind. However, she choked down her 
untimely mirth, and turned to her mother with 
a very grave face. 

‘ Mother,’ she said, ‘ if it were your case, 
would you swallow such an insult ? Think if it 
Was Father — just think.’ 

‘My dear,’ said Mrs. Dodsworth solemnly, ‘I 
assure you, even if your father was to go to the 
very greatest length, nothing would induce me 
to give up the shelter of his roof. I know that 
it sounds a very terrible thing to say, and to say 
to my own daughter, but I must tell you the 
truth. No matter how wronged a woman is, no 
matter hov/ harshly treated, she loses in the eyes 
of the world by separating from her husband. 
You cannot point to a single case where a 
woman has let pride dominate her in which she 
has not suffered materially by doing so. You 
spoke just now of its being possibly my own case; 
and I assure you solemnly that if your father were 
absolutely to bring a mistress into my house, I 
would not turn out of it. Whatever happens 
between husband and wife, the wife has the first 
right to the shelter of the husband’s name and 

roof . Nothing would induce me to give up 

either. You say that Ian did not want you to 


214 


THE MONEY SENSE 


leave; then he would probably be only too glad 
if somebody were to mediate between you. Let 
me write to Ian — let me see him — I might be 
able to bring him to a sense of his proper duty. 
If I talked to Ian — he is so sensible and so 
reasonable and so devoted to me — and my words 
would have more weight than the words of any 
one else ’ Mrs. Dodsworth broke off breath- 

lessly, and Angelique looked at her mother with 
a far-away smile. 

‘ It is very kind of you, Mother,’ she said, in a 
grave and simple tone, ‘ to wish to patch up such 
a breach as has come between Ian and myself, 
but you could only meet him and discuss such a 
matter from your own standpoint — from the 
standpoint of a w’oman v»rho is of a totally differ- 
ent nature to myself. Such a plan would bring 
no good result. You look first to the worldly 
side of the situation; you don’t understand me 
any more than I can understand you. -You 
don’t realise that a woman can give up a life of 
luxury, of ease, and physical comfort for a 
question of honour. I would rather die than go 
.back to a husband who has deceived me twice ! 
I shall not come home; I shall not become 
a burden to you; I have learned a great deal 
of the world since I lived at Beech Croft. It 
is more than kind of you to offer to undertake 


THE IMONEY SENSE 


215 


a task so entirely unpalatable, as it would be to 
you, to meet the man who has wronged and 
deceived your child.’ 

‘ But how are you going to live ? These rooms 
will cost money. You ’ 

‘ Oh, we won’t go into that,’ said Angelique. 
‘ I am not coming upon Father — you needn’t 
worry about that. Mother. I shall be all right if 
only Gwyn may stay with me, so that I have the 
protection of her presence; that is all I want and 
hope of you. I am not penniless, I have not 
been kept short of money — don’t, please, don’t 
trouble your head about ways and means for a 
moment. By and by everything will be dif- 
ferent — only don’t worry. In time I shall know 
what I am doing; I shall be able to arrange 
myself, as it were.’ 

‘But what will you live on?’ persisted Mrs. 
Dodsworth. 

‘Well, Mother, I have not been out in the 
world without understanding very much what I 
am going to do. I shall take up journalism a 
little for the present, and by and by — I think I 
shall start in business.’ 

‘ What sort of business ?’ 

‘ Possibly dressmaking,’ said Angelique. ‘ You 
know I was always clever at it, I could always 
make my own frocks. ’ 


2i6 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ But you can’t do it witliout capital.’ 

‘ Oh yes, when you have good friends you can 
do a great deal,’ said Angel ique. ‘ I have made 
so very many friends among women who — well. 
Mother dear, you don’t understand — well, women 
who spend eight or nine hundred a year on their 
clothes.’ 

‘ Is it possible!’ ejaculated Mrs. Dodsworth. 

‘Quite possible — much more possible than 
only spending eighty or ninety,’ said Angelique, 
with a smile which was to Mrs. Dodsworth very 
mysterious. 

‘I am afraid,’ said the old lady, ‘that you 
have got mixed up with a very fast-living set, 
Angelique. I hope that it isn’t any such feeling 
as this — the feeling that you have been going 
what is called “the pace” too fast — which has 
made Ian not altogether sorry to help you to a 
divorce. Of course, Ian never pretended that he 
was a very rich man; and if you have been 
living extravagantly — of course, it would make 
him less lenient.’ 

‘It is a curious thing. Mother,’ broke in 
Angelique, looking at Mrs. Dodsworth with half- 
closed eyes, ‘ that you always seem able to sym- 
pathise more with other people than with your 
own children. Why is it, I wonder, that everybody 
acquires a greater importance to you than those 


THE MONEY SENSE 


217 


who should be the most to you in all the 
world? You have always been the same. It 
was the same years and years ago when we 
quarrelled with our playfellows; it was the same 
later when Gustave Maynard forgot me for a 
woman with money; it has always been the 
same. How is it that you don’t think first of me, 
and afterwards of Ian ?’ 

‘ I think, Angelique,’ said Mrs. Dodsworth, 
groping again for her handkerchief, and beginning 
to cry weakly, ‘that you are never satisfied 
except you can try how unkindly you can treat 
me. Never was a mother so devoted as I have 
been to you. I am sure, looking back over your 
girlhood, you cannot say that there was ever a 
time when I have not denied myself anything and 
everything for the sake of my children.’ 

‘ Did you ?’ said Angelique. 

‘ When did7t‘t I deny myself? When have I 
not sacrificed every inclination of my heart for 
the sake of the boys and girls ?’ 

‘ I don’t remember it,’ said Angelique quietly. 

‘You don’t choose to remember it,’ said Mrs. 
Dodsworth; ‘that is all — you don’t choose to 
remember it I’ 

‘ And you do, Mother,’ said Angelique. 

The result of Mrs. Dodsworth’s laudable en- 
deavour to effect a reconciliation between 


2i8 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Angelique and her husband was only to make 
Angelique more and more determined not in any 
way to seek help from her father. Of course, it 
was quite impossible that she could take a 
single farthing from Sir John Berkeley, because 
he had with great discrimination never again 
in any way alluded to the conversation which 
had passed between them on their way home 
from the place in which the encounter with 
Millicent Page had occurred. 

Mrs. Dodsworth stayed a few days in town, 
going to her favourite quarters at Derrick’s. 
Gwyn, on the contrary, at once took up her 
abode with Angelique. ‘ I think. Mother,’ she 
said to Mrs. Dodsworth, before that good lady 
went back to the calmer atmosphere of Beech 
Croft, ‘ that you had better leave Angelique to 
take her own course. She has a very able 
adviser in Sir John Berkeley, who is quite like a 
father to her. She has made, as she says, many 
influential friends, and I feel sure that she will 
be better unfettered by such a dreadful little 
man as Ian. You know, I was always dead 
against her marrying him ; I foretold a good deal 
of all that has happened, but Angelique would not 
listen to me; and now, poor girl, she has found 
out with great bitterness that I was right, and 
that she was wrong in having trusted him so far. ’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


219 


‘ How am I to know that she will not do the 
same again ?' asked Mrs. Dodsworth impatiently. 

‘Well, dear, if she does, it will be her own 
fault, and I don’t think Angelique will ask you 
to bear it; she is inclined to pull through this 
trouble by herself, except in so far as she wishes 
to have the protection of my presence, which is 
quite a natural and proper thing for her to wish. 
Personally, I don’t think that she will rush into 
matrimony again without much thought — a burnt 
child, you knows, dreads the fire.’ 

‘ Yes — well, since Angelique will have none of 
my help, she must go her own way. I came 
up armed with your father’s permission to help 
her through with money, but she simply scouted 
the idea before I had even time to suggest it. 
Still, Gwyn, you know where to send if you find 
yourself run short — don’t let Angelique deny 
herself ordinary comfort for the sake of writing 
home.’ 

‘No, dear Mother, I won’t. I will do just 
what you would most wish so far as I possibly 
can,’ said Gwyn. 


CHAPTER XVIII 

In spite of certain vexatious delays, Angelique 
obtained her divorce very easily. As a matter 
of fact, the case was practically undefended ; for, 
in the face of the indisputable evidence that Ian 
Ingram was keeping up an establishment in 
North Bank, and that he had actually struck 
his wife across the face in the presence of her 
own maid, he was advised by his lawyer not to 
enter the witness-box at all, and Angelique went 
out of Court to all intents and purposes a free 
woman. Of course, there was still before her 
the tiresome period of waiting ere she would be 
free to enter into any other matrimonial contract. 
Still, that time had a limit, and, with care and 
prudence, would soon pass by. 

During the whole of this time Mrs. Torville 
believed that her sister was keeping herself. 
Through the influence of Sir John Berkeley, 
Angelique had got on to several ladies’ papers, 
220 


THE MONEY SENSE 


221 


and was working as a journalist. Her iournalism 
was of the most gushing and mediocre descrip- 
tion, but she had a certain touch with the great 
world which gave her work a marketable value. 
Through him she got many bits of information 
such as were not at the disposal of every 
scribbler, and she certainly did succeed in getting 
her work accepted. Sometimes she did interviews 
of more or less distinguished people. There, 
again. Sir John Berkeley’s influence came in 
and helped her greatly; for, to please him, ladies 
who would not consent to receive interviewers 
sent by their editors, received Angelique Ingram, 
and as Angelique spread the butter with a lavish 
hand, it must be confessed that most people were 
very well pleased at the pen-and-ink sketches 
which she drew of them. Then, too, under Sir 
John’s auspices she bloomed out as an art critic, 
and talked learnedly of the pictures of the year, 
and with an audacity which made Gwyn Torville 
stare in amazement. Angelique took everything 
as a matter of course, made her two or three 
pounds aweeklegitimately enough— and spent ten. 

‘Now, dear,’ she said one day, when Gwyn 
paid for something for the housekeeping out of 
her own pocket, ‘I don’t want to use you like 
that. You are here as a convenience to me, and 
I am not going to take your money.’ 


222 


THE MONEY SENSE 


It was perhaps the first time in her life that 
Angelique had hesitated to take money from 
anybody. To Gwyn such self-denial was the 
highest possible proof of the great change which 
time and sorrow had effected in her; yet it must 
be confessed that Mrs. Torville was one of those 
sweet, unsuspecting persons who can go on for a 
long time and see nothing that they are not 
intended to see, and but little further than the 
end of their nose. 

And at the last day came when a certain little 
formal ceremony was performed which brought 
the proceedings in the Divorce Court to an end, 
and Angelique walked out into the fresh 
air of heaven as free as a bird upon the wing. 

‘ Now I can breathe,’ she said to Gwyn. 

‘ Yes,’ said Gwyn, in a choking voice, ‘ and I 
congratulate you with all my heart. ’ 

They were bidden to lunch with Sir John 
Berkeley at a certain famous restaurant — that 
wonderful hostelry which overlooks the Thames, 
under whose roof you can take your meals with 
every luxury that the world knows and money 
can pay for. They sat at one end of a glass- 
covered terrace; and Sir John Berkeley, Gwyn, 
and the lawyer who had conducted the case, 
drank Angelique’ s health and prosperity in a 
bumper of the rarest Clicquot. 


THE MONEY SENSE 223 

‘ Mrs. Ingram’s troubles are all over now,’ 
said Sir John, as he raised his glass, ‘and I lay 
my congratulations and my good wishes at her 
feet. You,’ looking at Gwyn, ‘who love her, and 
you,’ with a gesture towards the lawyer, ‘who 
have helped her to this delightful freedom, will 
be glad to know that Mrs. Ingram’s prospects 
are more bright than may seem to you on the 
surface. In three days’ time you will be asked 
to join us at lunch again, when I hope that you 
will find pleasure in wishing every happiness and 
prosperity to Sir John Berkeley and Lady Berke- 
ley.’ 

For a moment Gwyn was almost too much 
overwhelmed to speak. ‘ You never told me a 
word of this, Angel, ’ she said, half reproachfully 
to her sister. 

‘ My dear,’ said Angelique, turning her radiant 
eyes upon her, and stretching out a tender and 
sympathetic hand to the trembling one which 
Gwyn had put out towards her, ‘ I could not tell 
you — I could not speak of it. We have not 
spoken of it to each other in plain words — once. 
The day that I found out how things were going, 
and that I should have to leave my home, Sir 
John told me that I need have no fear for the 
future . E.xcepting that once, this has never been 
hinted at between us — so don’t blame me, dear 


224 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Gwyn, for keeping you in the dark; it was the 
best — the only course that we could take. ’ 

‘ And you have not wished either of us joy,’ 
put in Sir John. 

‘ It is so sudden,’ murmured Gwyn. 

‘ It is sudden — yes,’ he admitted, ‘ it is sudden 
to you; but to me — no. I assure you, Mrs. 
Torville — Gwyn, if I may call you so, for we are 
to be brother and sister now — that the bitterest 
regret of my life is that I did not meet Angelique 
five or six years ago. She should never have run 
the cruel risks that she did run in marrying the 
fellow who basely betrayed and deserted her. 
Well, I don’t want to speak against the absent 
and those who are the losers of the day; but 
although Ingram never turned Angelique out of 
his house or left it himself, I do consider that 
his betrayal was the same thing in honour as a 
desertion.’ 

It was not until they were having coffee on 
the terrace that Gwyn found an opportunity of 
speaking privately to Sir John. 

‘Sir John,’ she said, half tremulously, ‘you 
will be good to Angelique; you will remember 
all that she has gone through ? Hers has been a 
sad and a disappointed life so far, and hers is a 
beautiful nature if it is treated rightly.’ 

• My dear,’ said Sir John, in his most charming 


THE MONEY SENSE 


225 

and paternal tones, taking both her hands, and 
looking down upon her with a quite irresistible 
expression, ‘ my dear, I am not young; I wish 
that I were Angelique’s age; I wish that I had 
known Angelique thirty years ago — for I am 
nearly sixty now. I cannot help having lived so 
many more years than she has done, but I can 
help her to a life of happiness as unalloyed as a 
life can be down here below. And I promise you 
that I will do my best to make your sister forget 
the degradation and the cruelty to which she has 
been subjected. I have seen so much more of 
the game than you. You have only been up now 
and again, when everything has been prepared 
for your coming, when everything has been gay 
and fresh, when Ingram has tried hard to show 
at his best — but I have been there constantly. 
For many months before the break I saw how 
neglected she was, how plucky, how brave, how 
forbearing she was. But for me, I don’t think 
she would have taken the step which to-day has 
made her for a few hours a free woman. I know 
that your mother blamed her for leaving Ingram; 
it was at my suggestion, it was by my urging 
that she did so. I could not explain all this to 
you then , because it would have endangered her 
chance of winning her case. I could not definitely 
make Angelique herself any promise, for she 


226 THE MONEY SENSE 


miglit have been asked the very question in 
Court, and she could not have foresworn herself, 
as you will understand. In trusting her to me, 

I promise you that it shall not be to a broken 
reed.’ 

Three days later Sir John Berkeley and Angeli- 
que were married. It was all managed with 
extreme quietness. A bishop performed the 
ceremony, and Mrs. Lennox by her own particu- 
lar desire gave the wedding luncheon. Mr. and 
Mrs. Dodsworth came up in haste to the cere- 
mony, and Gwyn made it her particular business 
to keep Mrs. Dodsworth and Mrs. Lennox as 
much apart as was possible with a woman of her 
mother’s remarkable force of character. Angeli- 
que herself was quite open-spoken about Mrs. 
Dodsworth’s peculiarities. 

‘ Now, my dear girl, if you want to do me a 
good turn,’ she said to Gwyn the day before the 
wedding, ‘ you will keep Mother from gabbling 
on about the glories of Beech Croft to Mrs. 
Lennox. Don’t let her explain anything about 
Ian — don’t let her explain anything about any- 
thing! You know how maddening Mother is 
when she gets on her explanations.’ 

‘ I will do my best,’ said Gwyn doubtfully. 

‘Yes, my dear, I know it will be difficult, but 
do try — there’s a good girl. The worst of 


THE MONEY SENSE 


227 


having the luncheon at Mrs. Lennox’s house is 
that there will be no certainty of getting Mother 
away in reasonable time. I couldn’t help Mother 
coming up; but if the lunch had been given at 
the Savoy^ Mrs. Lennox would have gone the 
moment we had left, whereas the difficulty will 
be now to get Mother out of the house after we 
have departed.’ 

‘ But why don’t you make her go to the station 
to see you off?’ Gwyn suggested. 

‘ That is a happy thought,’ said Angelique; 
‘ that is a very good thought of yours, Gwyn. 
Yes, that is what we will do. I will get her to 
go to the station to see us off — that is a delight- 
fully happy thought. ’ 

Mrs. Dodsworth, thus hedged about, had really 
but very small chance of cultivating her acquaint- 
ance with Angelique’s great and influential 
friend. She found herself placed at table be- 
tween the bishop and Angelique’s lawyer; and 
as the bishop was very much occupied on the 
other hand with Mrs. Lennox, Mrs. Dodsworth 
was able to discuss the whole affair to her heart’s 
content with the man of law. He was very 
much bored, it must be admitted, but his astute 
brain grasped the situation at a glance, and he 
allowed Mrs. Dodsworth to babble pleasantly on, 
and even to teach him his own business, with a 


228 THE MONEY SENSE 


patience which was a little short of the marvel- 
lous, She explained to him the entire law con- 
cerning divorce, and gave him points on a good 
many other legal matters, which he would have 
hesitated to answer offhand without going 
through the ceremony of consulting certain great 
legal tomes, or conferring with great living 
authorities, after the process which is known as 
‘ taking Counsel’s opinion.’ Mrs. Dods worth 
had no such hesitancy, and the patience or 
seeming patience with which her remarks were 
received served to put her into the most bland 
and delightful humour. On the whole, Gwyn’s 
task turned out to be quite an easy one; and when 
Sir John, at Angelique’s instigation, suggested 
that Mr. and Mrs. Dodsworth should go to 
Victoria to see the last of them, Mrs. Dodsworth’s 
cup of happiness was full to overflowing. ‘ It is 
not only,’ she said to Mrs. Williams a few days 
later, ‘ that Mr. Dodsworth and I are so gratified 
to think that everything should have come 
straight after all — for, naturally, Angelique’s 
unhappy marriage has been a terrible trouble to 
all of us — but it is personally so delightful to 
me that Angelique’s distinguished husband 
should be so attached to me. I assure you, he 
would not hear of our not going to the station to 
see the last of them.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


229 

‘ But the other one was so fond of you, ’ said 
Mrs. Williams maliciously. 

‘He always professed to be so,’ replied Mrs. 
Dodsworth with emphasis. 

Meantime, Sir John and Angelique were enjoy- 
ing an idyllic and to her wholly delightful holiday 
or honeymoon. They went first to Paris, where 
the general exodus for the summer had not yet 
commenced; and, for the first time in her life, 
Angelique was enabled to taste the sweets of 
adulation and the advantages of a great per- 
sonal position, for Sir John Berkeley’s name was 
one known throughout the whole civilised world, 
his personality was a pseudonym for all that is 
popular and lovable. 

They stayed at a first-class hotel, Angelique 
had as much money as she required for the pur- 
chase of chiffoits^ carriages were at her disposal, 
and she received more invitations than she could 
possibly accept. For a few weeks life passed for 
her in one whirl of gaiety. Then Sir John pro- 
fessed himself tired of Paris, declared that they 
could no longer support the heat or the irritation 
of continual going out, and carried her off to 
that centre of summer simplicity and gaiety — 
Homburg. 

There Angelique went into the very best 
society. She was a little overcome when she 


230 


T,HE MONEY SENSE 


was presented to the illustrious gentleman who 
has made Homburg his own; but her’s was an 
adaptive nature, and she very soon got used to 
meeting royalties, and thought no more of them 
than of many other smart folk whose acquaint- 
ance she made during that delightful sojourn. 
Over and over again she assured Sir John that 
he had made her quite, quite happy; that she 
looked back to her past with no regrets, and 
forward to her future with only the anticipation 
of further joy. As for Sir John, he seemed to 
have renewed his youth. It is so sometimes with 
elderly men who take young wives unto them- 
selves; and to him the alliance into which he 
had entered was one which was all gain, one 
which had many advantages, and apparently no 
drawbacks. 

‘ You must forgive us, dear Lady Berkeley,’ 
said a beautiful young countess to her one even- 
ing, ‘ if we openly make love to your charming 
husband under your very eyes. You see, we have 
so long made love to Sir John, that it has become 
more or less of a habit with us. You won’t quite 
take him away from us, will you ?’ 

‘ Oh, no,’ said Angelique, ‘ I shall never take 
Sir John away unless he wishes to go.’ 

‘ Ah, that is so sweet of you, ’ said her ladyship, 
‘ and I think so wise. I have always acted on 


THE MONEY SENSE 


231 


the same principle myself. Now with Ay caster 
I have always said, “ My dear boy, go your way, 
and I will go my way, and then we shall never 
be ennuyk-d of one another.” ’ 

‘ That would be very dreadful,’ said Angelique, 
‘ to be ennuy^-d of one another; but at present 
Sir John’s way is my way.’ 

‘ Oh, yes — or is your way Sir John’s way ?’ 

‘ Well, perhaps my way is Sir John’s way,’ 
Angelique admitted. 

‘ That is so sweet — quite idyllic, is it not. 
Princess? Lady Berkeley says that we shall 
never be able to flirt with her husband again; we 
shall never be able to make love to our dear Sir 
John any more — really, it is quite a tragedy.’ 

‘ I don’t think I said that,’ said Angelique. 

‘ No, but you implied it. You said that your 
way was Sir John’s way, and Sir John’s way 
was your way. It is quite idyllic. I only hope 
it may last. Dear me. Princess, didn’t Cissie 
Waterfall begin in something the same way? 
Do you remember when Cissie Waterfall was 
flrst married ?’ 

‘ Cissie Waterfall? Oh— -yes, yes.’ 

‘ She was very much affi.chk-d with her husband, 
was she not ?’ 

‘ Oh, quite painfully so, very dreadfully affichk-d 
with her husband. Of course, it is very beautiful 


232 THE MONEY SENSE 

while it lasts, and equally, of course,’ said the 
Princess, ‘ any woman who found herself married 
to Sir John would feel that way — for a time. I 
am sure we have all made love to Sir John 
always, and I can quite understand that even his 
wife must find the same habit fatally hard to 
break herself of. ’ 

‘ I don’t think,’ said Angelique, trying to speak 
very calmly and quietly, ‘ that I have made love 
to Sir John for so long that — in fact, I don’t think 
that I have made love to Sir John at all; it is 
Sir John who has made love to me.’ 

‘ Very proper — quite beautiful and idyllic. One 
only hopes it will last — or rather, I only hope that 
it won’t last for ever, because we should all 
be quite disconsolate if our Sir John were to 
turn his back upon us. Don’t you think so. 
Princess?’ 

‘ It would be too painful to have no Sir John,’ 
said the Princess, smiling, ‘ but we must not make 
Lady Berkeley unhappy or uneasy. She will get 
used to the wholesale love that is made to her 
husband by and by — women all do it — it is like 
taking chloral, a habit they cannot break them- 
selves of. And what a happy woman you must 
be, Lady Berkeley! Fancy being married to our 
dear Sir John and having him always. Fancy 
being able to go everywhere with him — lucky 


THE MONEY SENSE 


233 

woman. We have to put up with just a word 
now and again, scarcely that. ’ 

But Angelique very soon found that these 
great ladies of fashion were not inclined to put 
up with a word now and again with Sir John. 
She found that they had spoken truly when they 
said that they made love to him; for they did 
that in the most barefaced and open manner, 
using him for this, that, and the other, sending 
him on all manner of quests, bestowing their 
favours lavishly upon him, and demanding con- 
siderable service in return. When first she 
became aware of this she chafed not a little 
under the process. 

‘ How dare these women order you about like 
this, John?’ she said indignantly to him one day 
when the Princess Hermione von Dosters Deyn, 
who was English born and patrician, had asked 
him to procure her some special book from 
Frankfort. 

‘ My dear,’ said Sir John easily, ‘ it is the way 
of these women. If one was a nobody, they 
would see one hanged before they would ask one 
to get them anything; it is the price that I pay 
for being Sir John Berkeley and somebody a little 
out of the common. And it is the price that you 
must pay for being Eady Berkeley and somebody 
very much out of the common. ’ 


234 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘But why should you be lackey to these 
women ?’ 

‘Lackey! Come, come, that is a hard word. 
It doesn’t sound pretty from a lady’s lips. It is 
my privilege and very much my pleasure to obey 
the mandate of any fair lady.’ 

‘Yes, that was all very well when you were 
not married. ’ 

‘My dear girl, we have got to think of our 
bread and butter though I am married — rather 
more so, in fact. You forget that your old city 
set, which you hated so much, have all the 
money — all the money; but they are easy to 
dazzle in certain ways, not because I paint better 
than most people, not because I am Sir John, 
Royal Academician and all that — no, no, but 
because I paint the princesses and the duchesses 
and all these fashionable fine ladies with whom 
your city people true and proper have absolutely 
no touch. For instance, take your great finan- 
cier’s wife — she is very rich, she is no beauty, 
she is a bit common, and more than a bit doubt- 
ful of her position, she wants to have her portrait 
in the Academy. So who does she choose to get 
it there ?’ 

‘ The best artist, of course,’ said Angelique. 

‘ How does she know who is the best artist ?’ 
Said he contemptuously. ‘ Well, she does not 


THE MONEY SENSE 


235 


know, she hasn’t the least idea, but the artist 
whom she does choose is the one that paints the 
most aristocratic women — see ?’ 

‘ Oh yes, I see,’ said Angelique; ‘but, at the 
same time, I don’t like it. 

‘ My dear girl, you will have to put up with it. 
It is not a question of whether you like it; it is 
a question of bread and butter. If I were to 
change all my habits of life because lam married 
to a young and charming woman, whom I love 
with all my soul, I should lose a good half of my 
commissions. Now, my dear girl, you and I 
cannot afford to have our income halved; on the 
contrary, I would prefer to double it, because I 
would like you to have everything that your 
station and your beauty deserve. By the bye,’ 
he added, in a different tone, ‘ the next time you 
see me eating cream at dinner, kick me. ’ 

Angelique fairly jumped. ‘Why, John!’ she 
exclaimed, ‘ kick you! What do you mean ?’ 

‘ Mean ? Why, that I have got the heartburn, 
my dear girl; I have got the heartburn most 
dreadfully. Cream always does give me the 
heartburn. I don’t know what I am such a fool 
as to eat it for. ’ 

‘ Well, really, John,’ said Angelique, laughing 
in spite of herself, ‘ you are foolish at your age if 
you eat anything that you know will make you ill.’ 


236 THE MONEY SENSE 

‘It won’t make me ill,’ said Sir John, a little 
testily, ‘but it gives me the heartburn, and 
heartburn is unpleasant. I think I had better 
have — let me see — a liqueur brandy to counteract 
it. Ring the bell as you are so near, there’s a 
good child.’ 

Angelique stretched out her hand and rang 
the bell. The great painter ordered his liqueur 
brandy, and drank it with evident relish. ‘ Will 
you have one, dearest ?’ he asked, as the waiter 
left the room. 

‘I think not,’ said Angelique; ‘I haven’t got 
the heartburn.’ 

‘ Ah, and you had cream, I saw you. Lucky 
girl!’ 

It happened only a few nights after this — a 
couple of nights after — that they were dining on 
the Kursaal Terrace, with a very distinguished 
party, when Angelique saw Sir John help himself 
liberally to rich cream. She was quite on the 
other side of the table, and it was a large round 
table, at which it was quite impossible for her 
to convey to him by a touch of the foot that he 
was eating the forbidden fruit. Once or twice 
she looked uneasily at him and coughed, trying 
to attract his attention; but Sir John, who was 
seated next to a beautiful and charming 
woman, was blind and deaf and dumb to any 


THE MONEY SENSE 


237 


outside influences whatever, and ate his cream as 
rapidly as the conventionalities would allow. In 
her despair she spoke to him, literally dragging 
him into the conversation as it were by the 
heels; and once having attracted his attention, 
she said to him, ‘John, you know what you told 
me the other night to remind you of.’ 

‘’Pon my soul,’ he answered, ‘I don’t. I 
forget all about it. What was it ?’ As he spoke, 
he took another good spoonful of cream, and 
washed it down with a draught of champagne.’ 

‘ Oh, yes, you do know. You told me to remind 
you of something. Don’t you remember?’ 

‘ No, my dear, I don’t remember,’ he replied, 
with persistent good-humour, and equally per- 
sistent want of understanding. 

‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Angelique hopelessly. 

And that night Sir John was really very 
ill. 

‘I cannot think,’ he said, when they had 
reached the shelter of their own apartments, ‘ I 
cannot think what has made me feel so bad 
to-night.’ 

‘ My dear John, it was all the cream you ate at 
dinner,’ said Angelique. 

‘ Cream ? Why the devil didn’ t you stop me ?, ’ 
he blurted out. 

‘ W’ell, I did everything I could. I couldn’t 


238 THE MONEY SENSE 

say to you, “John, don’t eat cream; it gives you 
the heartburn,” before all those people, and 
before the Prince and all. How could I ? I did 
say to you that you told me to remind you of 
something.’ 

‘Ah — by Jove ! So you did — dear — dear. Well, 
I didn’t understand. Look here now, Angelique. 
I must have a code with you, though really you 
should have told me more plainly; if you had 
just said “cream,” I should have known what 
you meant. ’ 

‘ But, John, I didn’t like to do that; it might 
look as if — as if ’ 

‘Well?’ 

‘ Well, as if you had set up a nurse, and I was 
grudging you your food and all that. I didn’t 
like to.’ 

‘By Jove, perhaps it would have done! One 
cannot be too careful with these people. But, I 
tell you what, Angelique, I do feel most horribly 
ill. I hope I am not going to have the spasms. 
Now, what else did I eat? It couldn’t have only 
been the cream, because that only gives me heart- 
burn. Oh, dear, how dreadful this is I It is 
getting worse every minute. Stay, I have it — it 
was the lobster salad. What a fool I w’as to eat 
that lobster salad; it always makes me ill.’ 

‘ Oh, John,’ she cried, ‘ why in the world don’t 


THE MONEY SENSE 


239 

you tell me what does make you ill, and what 
doesn’t ?’ 

‘ My dear, you know that cream makes me ill, 
but it didn’t make you stop me from eating it,’ 
he replied. 

‘Well, John, it was only consideration for you 
that didn’t make me stop you in the plainest of 
language; but, as you said just now, couldn’t we 
have some code by which I could tell you ?’ 

‘ My dear child, if I had some brandy, that 
would be better than a code, because I am 
getting worse every minute. I can’t breathe.’ 

‘ What shall I do ? Shall I send for a doctor?’ 
Angelique cried, for she was getting frightened. 

‘ Send for some brandy,’ he gasped. 

So Angelique tore at the bell and ordered some 
brandy immediately. But this time brandy was 
of no avail; and, after an hour of unrelieved 
anguish, Angelique took the law into her own 
hands and sent for a doctor. By that time Sir 
John was writhing about in what was little short 
of intense agony. 

‘Now, what is the meaning of this, pray?’ 
asked the doctor, when he had grasped the full 
state of affairs. 

‘Well, I am afraid it means lobster salad, 
doctor,’ said Angelique apologetically. 

‘ Ah, dear, dear, dear ! What does an old 


240 THE MONEY SENSE 

gentleman like you want to eat lobster salad 
for? And at night too,’ said the doctor, who 
was a perfect Abernethy for calling a spade a 
spade. ‘ And pray what else did you have for 
dinner? Tell me that.’ 

‘ I am afraid he had some cream , doctor, and 
a good deal of it.’ 

‘ Cream ? What sort of cream ?’ 

‘ Well, it was thick rich cream — compdte.’ 

‘ Oh, dear, dear, dear, you Englishmen are very 
strange — very strange. You are not content 
with eating lobster salad at night, but must eat 
rich cream too — enough to kill you! — enough 
to kill you !’ 

‘Yes, I know it was enough to kill me,’ said 
Sir John between gasps of pain, ‘the greater 
— fool — I to — do it. But give me — something — 
doctor.’ 

‘I will. Now, my dear lady, this foolish 
gentleman must have a mustard poultice — all 
over the stomach — at once.’ 

‘ I wonderif they have any mustard in the hotel,’ 
said Angelique rather blankly. As a matter of 
fact, Angelique had never made a mustard 
poultice in her life, and had about as much idea 
how to do it as she had of mixing medicines. 

The doctor looked at her. ‘ Can you make a 
mustard poultice ?’ he asked blandly. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


241 

‘ I never did, but I can if you tell me how, ’ 
said Angelique confidently. 

‘Ah , you English ladies, I thought you could do 
anything. Now, I will give you a less — on. 
Permit me to ring the bell. — Ah, Adolph, you are 
the very man I require. Bring me a large tin of 
English mustard and a little flour; and a basin — 
a large basin — ah, well, the basin in the next 
room will do. Yes.’ 

‘You will want a kettle, won’t you?’ said 
Angelique. 

‘You make mustard poultices of cold water, 
my dear lady,’ replied the doctor crushingly. 

‘Oh, I didn’t know,’ faltered Angelique. 

‘No — no — but you will! I will show you. 
You will often want them. A gentleman who 
will eat cream and lobster salad at the same 
meal will do anything; he will never learn 
wisdom. Now — something thin — something of 
muslin. Yes, that will do, that will do — very 
nice — very nice indeed. Yes. Spread it out — 
yes, so. Now, you see, I just mix the mustard 
and the flour, one part of flour to five of mustard, 
and I pour in the cold water, and then — I spread 
it out on the muslin, spread it nice and thin, and 
double the muslin over, and, mind you, keep it out 
of your eyes. Now then — open the chest. — Yes. 
And now the comforting little plaster shall go 
16 


243 


THE MONEY SENSE 


on. — There! What, it makes you shudder? You 
will not shudder long — you will not shudder long.’ 

‘ And how long is that to stop on ?’ asked 
Angelique. 

‘Till you cannot persuade your husband to 
keep it on any longer. When the poor stomach 
is nice and red — scarlet — crimson — like a cherry, 
then you may take it ofif and gently dab the 
place, and dust a little of the plain flour over it 
— that is it. ’ 

‘ And about medicine ?’ asked Angelique. 

‘ I will send a bottle of medicine, and the best 
medicine for the future is — no lobster salad — no 
cream. You must remember, my friend, that you 
are not as young as you were twenty years ago; 
you must leave these indigestible articles of food 
to the young and foolish. I will look in in the 
morning. Good-night, my dear lady. Good-night.’ 

For a moment after the door closed there was 
silence; then Sir John looked round. ‘ Is he 
gone ?’ 

‘Yes.’ 

‘ The man’s a fool,’ he said curtly. 

‘ Well, I don’t know, dear. I think he is wise 
in one way. You ought not to have eaten that 
salad, you know.’ 

‘ Pooh, the old fool! Idiot! I shall eat what I 
like. By Jove, but this thing’s getting warm.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


243 


‘ My dear boy, you can’t take it off yet. You 
must keep it on for at least twenty minutes — be 
said so. ’ 

‘ Twenty minutes ? How long have I bad it on 
now ?’ 

‘ Ob, not more than three. ’ 

‘ Good Heavens! wby, I shall be dead in twenty 
minutes. By Jove, how it does sting!’ 


CHAPTER XIX 

When Angelique found herself back in London 
and comfortably established in her distinguished 
husband’s beautiful house in Holland Park, she 
began to understand what a life of pleasure really 
meant. When I say back in London, I do not 
mean just the time when they went back merely 
on their return from the Continent, for then they 
were only in town for a few days at a time. 
They paid half-a-dozen extremely smart visits 
during that autumn; twice they went down to 
Brighton for a few days; and they also stayed a 
short time at Tunbridge Wells, as Sir John took 
it into his head that he needed a course of elec- 
tric baths. But the beginning of December found 
them settled at home for the winter, and enjoy- 
ing a run of gaiety such as Angelique had never 
experienced before. 

At first she had hard work to keep up with the 
visits which were paid her. ‘ It is awfully hard 
244 


THE MONEY SENSE 


245 


work being Lady Berkeley,’ she said to Sir John 
one day, when he asked her what her plans were. 
‘ I put in seventeen calls yesterday, John.’ 

‘ How many women did you find at home ?’ 

‘ Oh, only three; but the fag of making out the 
list and thinking out the people and all that — 
oh, it is dreadful.’ 

‘ My dear girl, ’ he said, with a laugh, ‘ it is 
nothing to what you will have to get through in 
the season, when all the really smart folk come 
back to town. Show Sunday will begin the 
treadmill for us. ’ 

As yet, however, Angelique was very much 
fascinated with a society life, and she duly 
fagged round, dropping visiting cards or paying 
the shortest of visits, until she felt that there 
was not one person who could reasonably feel 
that she had been neglected. 

About this time her debts began to trouble 
her; not the debts which she had accumulated 
before that meeting with Millicent Page, because 
they naturally fell to the share of the unfortunate 
Ian Ingram. I say unfortunate, because the 
wretched little man had been pretty well drained 
of money between the two women with whom he 
had been connected — his wife and his mistress. 
He had been lavish enough with both; and when 
he discovered the thousands of pounds which 


246 THE MONEY SENSE 

Angelique had squandered, he had little or no 
choice than to go bankrupt by way of getting 
rid of them. Truly, Ian Ingram had paid very 
dear for his whistle, and, I think, with one ex- 
ception, every one who knew him — who knew 
in any way the circumstances of his case — was in 
a measure sorry for him when they saw the an- 
nouncement of the liquidation of his aflfairs in the 
newspapers. That one exception was Angelique 
herself. Strangely enough, although everything 
had fallen out as she had planned and intended, 
in Angelique’ s heart there burned a steady, 
fierce resentment against the man who had once 
been her husband. 

I think I have said before that during the 
latter part of the time that she was living in 
rooms with Gwyn pending the trial of her case 
or awaiting the final decree, she had made a 
little money by her pen — a mere trifle, a matter 
of two or three pounds a week. She had lived 
during the whole of that time with a great show 
of economy, but her weekly expenses had never 
been less than about ten pounds. She had, from 
motives of guarding against annoyance in the 
future, refused any help from her father; and 
although, in spite of the pretty notions with 
which she had started, she had used Gwyn’s 
little income as freely as if it were her own, she 


THE MONEY SENSE 


247 


had not been able to avoid beginning her second 
married life with what may be called a snug 
little nest-egg of liabilities. It was not a very 
large one — oh, dear, no, not much more than she 
had carried into her first married life. Her 
father had given her a hundred pounds for her 
wedding present, that she might purchase herself 
some suitable garments; and Sir John, as soon as 
they were married, had told her that he could 
allow her three hundred a year for pin-money. 

Goodness knows, Angelique had intended to 
begin and continue her second venture in matri- 
mony without any of those troubles which had 
been so irksome to her in the time of Ian 
Ingram. She had not forgotten the lesson that 
Sir John himself had unintentionally taught her, 
in speaking of the Duchess of Twyford as being 
too great a lady to need to give a thought to her 
personal appearance. She had used the whole 
of her father’s wedding present as sops to exist- 
ent debts, and the few garments which she had 
bought for herself she had in each case put into 
the bill. 

Now, Homburg is not a place where you re- 
quire very elaborate clothing, and Angelique 
had felt herself quite as well equipped and a 
great deal smarter looking than most of the 
great ladies whose acquaintance she made during 


THE MONEY SENSE 


248 

her stay there; but when she came to stay in 
large and very smart country houses, then every- 
thing was altered. For instance, the first visit 
he made was at the Duchess of Sevenoaks, and 
lasted four days. Angelique took with her two 
day dresses, two dinner dresses, and two beautiful 
new tea- gowns. The first two days she felt as 
well dressed as any other woman there; but on the 
third day, when each lady excepting the Duchess 
herself came down in a fresh morning gown, 
changed it for a fresh tea-gown, and then sported 
an entirely different confection for the evening, 
Angelique felt her whole soul grow sick within 
her to think that she, little more than a bride, 
and the bride of such a great man as Sir John 
Berkeley, should be the only one to appear in 
garments which had been seen before. It is true 
that the young Duchess of Sevenoaks was very 
much like the old Duchess of Twyford, and cared 
not one jot about clothes, never showed in a tea- 
gown at all, but made her appearance each after- 
noon in the great hall wearing the same tweed 
skirt, edged with leather, in which she had been 
tramping about during the whole of the morning. 
But then, as Angelique told herself, she was not 
the Duchess of Sevenoaks — she was only the 
wife of Sir John Berkeley, the eminent painter. 

‘I feel so mad,’ she said to Sir John, on that 


THE MONEY SENSE 


249 

third afternoon, when they were dressing for 
dinner. 

‘ Why do you feel mad ?’ 

‘ Because I have only got two tea-gowns, and 
all the other women have got three, and probably 
four. What I shall wear to-morrow, I don’t 
know. ’ 

‘ The Duchess' didn’t wear a tea-gown at all 
did she?’ asked Sir John. 

‘ No, she didn’t, and she has worn the same 
dress every day,’ replied Angelique. ‘ But what 
an object she looks!’ 

‘ Well, she does, that is quite true. But why 
didn’t you get yourself enough tea-gowns?’ 

‘ My dear, I never came to a house like this 
before. I didn’t know women wore a fresh dress 
for every hour,’ answered Angelique, looking at 
him with her wide-open, distressed eyes. 

Sir John caught hold of her and held her fast 
imprisoned within his arms. ‘ Poor little woman! 
Didn’t it have tea-gowns enough? Now, look 
here, I am not going to have you made miserable 
for the sake of a few rags, so before we go on to 
the Levison-Turnours, you take care that you get 
enough clothes. You see, dear, these women who 
pay a dozen visits in one autumn, they can’t make 
three dresses last right through the whole time; 
it isn’t likely — not unless they are duchesses — 


250 


THE MONEY SENSE 


so they start with plenty and wear the same set 
at every house; it really is quite the most reason- 
able plan. And then their maids know exactly 
how to pack them, and what they will take, so 
do you take a lesson out of their books and 
arrange your own affairs accordingly.’ 

A kind of thrill shot through Angelique’s heart. 
She threw up her arms impulsively about his neck 
and held up her face to be kissed. ‘ Oh, you are 
a dear!’ she said, with a great sigh. 

‘ I hope that doesn’t mean that you have had 
your doubts about it,’ he said teasingly. ‘ Why 
my darling, you are all in the world to me, and I 
have never been so happy — well, never as I have 
been since you were my wife. I never knew 
what real happiness was before. And do you 
suppose I am going to spoil your happiness for 
the sake of a few clothes? What a bear you 
must think your old man! Tell me — you are not 
sorry you married the old man, are you?’ 

‘Sorry!’ cried Angelique, ‘sorry! Oh, no, I 
have never been so happy — never!’ And then 
she felt vexed with herself that a sudden remem- 
brance of Ian Ingram came unbidden into her 
mind. 

Angelique passed the rest of her country- 
house visits in the greatest comfort, for she went 
fully equipped to be as brave in her attire as any 


THE MONEY SENSE 


251 


of the others. She had exquisite taste in dress, 
and in truth received the fullest acknowledgment 
from the other ladies of the fact. 

‘ Of course, Lady Berkeley is always well 
dressed,’ said one lady to another in Angelique’s 
presence, ‘and of course you have the advan- 
tage,’ turning to Angelique, ‘ of having Sir 
John’s exquisite taste always at command.’ 

‘ I never consult my husband about my cloth- 
ing,’ said Angelique. 

‘ Don’t you, really ?’ cried another. ‘I should 
if I were you; but, then, I never trust my own 
taste, it is too much trouble. I go to Michelle, 
and I say, “ Now, Michelle, I am going to so-and- 
so, and so-and-so, and I will trust you to turn me 
out properly.” That is the beauty of Michelle, 
you can always trust her.’ 

‘Yes, but Michelle is so expensive,’ said the 
first speaker, who was an enormously rich woman, 
and therefore delighted in saving a shilling where 
she could. ‘ I went to Michelle once when you 
advised me; she made me a little gown for the 
morning — twenty guineas, if you please, and 
sniffed at me because I said it was dear. Oh, I 
can’t stand Michelle, she is beyond me alto- 
gether. ^ 

‘ She is not cheap, ’ said the other. ‘ Where do 
you go. Lady Berkeley ?’ 


252 


THB MONEY SENSE 


‘ I go to a little woman who is a find of my 
own — a little Frenchwoman,’ said Angelique. 

‘ I am in want of a little woman,’ said the rich 
lady. ‘ You might give me her address — you don’t 
mind, do you ? I will recommend you to any of my 
tradespeople. I think it is absolute wanton waste 
to go to a woman like Michelle and let her charge 
you anything that she chooses. You don’t get a 
bit the better served for it, and you are not one 
bit better dressed. And as for allowing a woman 
to dress you like a fashion plate, that I would 
never do. Really, Rosalie, I am surprised that 
you will own to it. ’ 

‘ I don’t mind owning to it,’ said the patroness 
of the talented Michelle. ‘ I don’t profess to be 
as good at thinking out clothes as a woman who 
makes it her business. Michelle understands 
what suits one; I am always suitably dressed, 
and I have no trouble. It is true she is not 
cheap, but then she is very patient in the way 
of credit. Lady Berkeley’s little Frenchwoman 
may be all very well, but such a person gives an 
infinitude of trouble. I have tried them. Life is 
too short for worry of that kind. Better let me 
give you Michelle’s address and an introduction 
to her. You will find her perfectly invaluable, 
particularly if you are going to be presented, as, 
of course, you will be on your marriage.’ 


THE. MONEY SENSE 253 

‘ No, I shall not be presented, ’ said Angelique. 

‘Oh, really? That is very odd. Now, why?’ 

‘ Because, you see, I divorced my first husband.’ 

‘ Divorced your first husband ? Dear, dear, 
dear. That is very sad — that is very sad. But 
what a lucky woman you must be to have divorced 
your first husband and then married Sir John 
Berkeley! Dear me, what luck some people 
have! I wish I could divorce my husband.’ 

‘ But, my dear,’ said the rich woman, ‘ I thought 
you were quite devoted to Lord Packhurst.’ 

‘ Devoted to Packhurst ? Oh, quite so — 
tremendously devoted; but fancy being able to 
divorce a husband without any scandal beyond 
just the fact of not being able to go to Court. 
Why, think of the excitement and the delightful 
change in one’s life! Why, it would be too 
splendid! Lady Berkeley is a lucky woman. I 
should be delighted to give you Michelle’s 
address and an introduction to her at any time 
if you would like to have it. . Was your first 
husband nice ?’ 

‘No,’ said Angelique curtly. 

‘ Not nice ? Young ?’ 

‘Yes, he was young.’ 

‘ And he was called — what was he called ?’ 

‘ His name was Ingram.’ 

‘Ingram? Good name, Ingram. Does he 


254 


THE MONEY SENSE 


belong to the Ingrams — the Warrington 
Ingrams ?’ 

‘I think not,’ said Angelique; ‘and, if you 
don’t mind, I would rather not talk about my 
first husband. I parted from him, and I never 
think about him if I can avoid it.’ 

‘Ah, I see — you really liked him. Poor girl, 
how very sad! That would be the worst of 
getting a divorce from Packhurst — I really 
like him. Of course, it is most unfashionable 
to like your husband — most unfashionable 
and most awkward. What did he do, your 
husband ?’ 

‘ The usual thing,’ said Angelique, wishing 
devoutly that she would stop. 

‘ The usual thing ? Another woman ? Poor 
dear, why didn’t you behave sensibly and forgive 
him ? It is very beautiful to forgive one’s 
husband, particularly if one likes him.’ 

‘ I did forgive him,’ said Angelique, ‘ once.’ 

‘ Once ? And you couldn’t the second time. 
Ah, well, that was very weak of you. Now, I 
wonder how often I have forgiven Packhurst’s 
little affairs. Let me see now, Rosalie — there 
was that little affair with Lady Veronica. I was 
very angry about that. Of course, he swore 
there was nothing in it, and perhaps he was 
right; but still, he did give her a diamond cross. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


255 


It is getting serious when your husband gives 
away diamond crosses. Then there was a red- 
haired creature that I saw him at Ascot with. 
I never found out quite who she was; he said 
there was nothing in that. Packhurst always 
says there is nothing in it — it’s a safe thing to 
say. I wonder if he would think there was 
nothing in it if he saw me flaunting about 
with a red-haired creature at Ascot or else- 
where? Then there was his little affair with 
you, Rosalie. He said there was nothing in 
that.'* 

‘ There was certainly nothing in that,’ said the 
rich woman. 

‘ Wasn’t there? No, you are too rich to want 
diamond crosses, but he did admire you — oh, yes, 
he did admire you — unpleasantly much. And 
after you, he was a little tpris with our dear 
Duchess here. That would have been an affair 
beyond the ordinary run if she had not been so 
dreadfully cold-hearted. I shall never forget 
what she said when she gave me a hint of what 
was going on. “ My dear Effie,” she said to me, 
“ I wish you would take your husband away, he is 
a most embarrassing person to have staying in 
the house. I have got nobody fresh for him to 
make love to, and he persists in making love to 
me. I don’t mind, I am quite proof against that 


256 THE MONEY SENSE 

kind of thing, but the Duke is curiously old- 
fashioned, and he does object so. Just take him 
away, there’s a good girl.” And I did take 
Packhurst away. He was — er — very unwilling 
to go. He said — er — that she was his ideal, but 
I was firm, because I am very fond of the Duchess, 
and I have always found her an exceedingly 
good sort, and — er — I had no wish to have my 
friendship imperilled. So I took Packhurst quite 
by storm, I — er — made love to him myself, and 
he was so surprised that he positively could not 
resist me. We went off to the Isle of Wight, 
and had a new honeymoon — er — it was most 
embarrassing. We called our youngest boy 
Osborne,’ she added reflectively. ‘Ah, my 
dear,’ she continued, turning to Angelique, ‘I 
am sure Sir John is very charming and nice and 
sweet and dear and all that, but in future I 
would advise you to remember the beauty of 
forgiveness. You can’t go on divorcing your 
husbands, you know. Of course, you have not 
been married very long, and you think that Sir 
John will always be satisfied, and all that — and 
perhaps he will — but you must not forget that 
Sir John has lived a life of great popularity. 
The quantity of women in London who say, “Sir 
John Berkeley is mine!"''' is really beyond calcu- 
lation. I know a dozen women at this moment 


THE MONEY SENSE 257 

who would be fit to tear out one’s eyes if one 
even spoke an extra word to him. You ought to 
think yourself lucky that poison-rings and love- 
philtres and such-like things have gone out of 
fashion.’ 


CHAPTER XX 

In the last chapter I mentioned Angelique’s 
liabilities but wandered away from the subject. 
She naturally went to none of the same people 
with whom she had dealt as Mrs. Ian Ingram — at 
least, I mean to none of those people with whom 
she had dealt previous to her leaving Ian In- 
gram’s house. All those, or nearly all those with 
whom she had dealt during the interregnum, had 
been recommended to her by Mrs. Lennox, and 
were people accustomed to dealings with persons 
in good society. 

Somehow, in spite of her laudable intentions to 
the contrary, Angelique found her dress allowance 
singularly inadequate. She never really felt that 
she could adorn her position without the advan- 
tages and aid of beautiful and artistic dress. Sir 
John was very particular about her appearance; 
he admired her very greatly, and would notice in 
a moment if her hair were less elaborately 
258 


THE MONEY SENSE 


259 


dressed for breakfast than it had been for a 
dinner-party the previous evening. He was a 
man of the highest artistic taste, a characteristic 
which does not always belong to the distinguished 
painter; he really liked to see his wife the best 
dressed of any woman in a room; and invariably 
met her small attempts at economy with the 
same unanswerable argument, ‘Ah, well, my 
dear, of course it is very nice of you to be so 
careful; but I have dressed so many beautiful 
women in my time, that the world would think it 
very strange if my own beautiful wife were not 
suitably dressed to her appearance and position. 
You must have suitable things for certain 
occasions. ’ 

‘ Yes, that is all very well, John, ’said Angelique 
one day in a kind of desperation, when the sub- 
ject under discussion was a great costume ball to 
which they were bidden, ‘ but I simply cannot 
afford to have dresses at this rate, and this 
costume that you propose will be nothing unless 
it is specially made for me, and it will cost a 
great deal of money.’ 

‘ Oh, well,’ said Sir John easily, ‘ we can afford 
you an extra dress now and again, particularly,’ 
slipping his arm around her waist, ‘ if you are very 
kind to me.’ 

It must be admitted that Angelique shuddered. 


26 o 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘I hope that I am always kind to you, John,’ she 
said, half piteously. 

Sir John drew her to him and kissed her, kissed 
her not once nor twice, but at least a dozen 
times. ‘You might be a little kinder to me 
— sometimes,’ he said, with a half- wistful eager- 
ness; ‘ it would make such a difference to me.’ 

‘I am very fond of you, John,’ faltered 
Angelique. 

‘Yes, but I want you to be something more 
than very fond of me. I want you to make a 
little more of me. ’ 

A great revulsion of feeling settled down upon 
Angelique’s spirit, again a remembrance of Ian 
Ingram came back to her, of the husband who 
had been unfaithful, who had had many faults, 
who had laboured under many disadvantages, who 
had belonged to a third-rate Jewish City set, but 
who had never wanted that kind of consideration. 
She made a great effort; but try as she would, 
she could not keep back the shudder which shook 
her whole person, she could not keep back the 
remembrance of the husband who, even while he 
had deceived her, had valued her love so high 
that he had been content with but the barest 
expression of her feelings. A little kiss lightly 
given had always been sufficient to make him her 
abject slave; in all their life together, Ian Ingram 


THE MONEY SENSE 261 

had never asked her to be kinder to him — he had 
been amply satisfied with her toleration. Look- 
ing back, it struck her with a sort of wonder that 
she had yearned as fiercely to get rid of the one 
husband as she had done to be the wife of the 
other. 

The result of that little chat was that Sir John 
gave her a cheque for fifty pounds as an extra to 
her pin-money. Angelique took it with a feeling 
that it burned her fingers; that it was the price 
of her soul; that it was the gage of her degrada- 
tion. However, the money stood her in good 
stead, and helped her round an exceedingly bad 
corner; and gradually Angelique got back into 
her old habits of spending money like water, 
though it was more as one would take a narcotic 
than for the actual pleasure of acquiring 
possessions. 

‘My dear Lady Berkeley,’ said a beautiful 
young woman to her after dinner one evening, 

‘ I wonder if you really understand how women 
in London envy you ? I wonder,’ with a sigh, 

‘ what it is like to have a husband like Sir John. ’ 

‘ Oh, very delightful,’ said Angelique drily. 

‘ I should think so — I should quite think so. 
Most of our husbands are just rich or ordinary; 
there is nothing delightful about the common or 
garden husband; but to have a husband whom 


262 


THE MONEY SENSE 


every other woman envies you — it must be too 
delightful for words!’ 

‘I don’t see why you should envy me my 
husband. Your own husband is very nice and 
very good-looking, and apparently very rich,’ 
said Angelique sweetly. 

‘ Yes, but he is not Sir John. There is nothing 
about our husbands. Now, I was perfectly 
conscious to-night that every woman at the 
table envied me for having gone in with Sir 
John.’ 

‘ Do you really think so?’ said Angelique. 

‘ Yes, I do really think so. Our hostess was 
obliged to take in a man of higher rank, or she 
would not have let me have Sir John.’ 

‘ Well, I don’t want to go in to dinner with 
Sir John,’ said Angelique. 

‘ No, because you have him always. I wonder,’ 
with a sigh, ‘ do you ever get a feeling of 
“toujours perdrix.” ’ 

‘ Perhaps,’ said Angelique. 

‘Ah, it is always the same! Women who 
would give the whole world to be in your shoes 
have to do with a pair of quite another cut, and 
the women who have got the shoes don’t value 
them.’ 

‘Perhaps they know where they pinch,’ said 
Angelique, with a laugh. 


THE MONEY SENSE 263 

It was not a very real sounding laugh; but the 
lady to whom she was talking was not a person 
of very keen perception, and she only thought 
Angel ique insufferably uppish in pretending that 
she did not particularly value being Sir John’s 
lawful possessor. 

Now it happened that evening that Angelique 
had seen Sir John eat no less than three things 
which she knew would entirely and utterly 
disagree with him. They were going on from 
this dinner to a very smart dance, and on the 
way from one house to the other she took 
occasion to warn him against indulging in any 
more indiscretions of a gastronomic description. 
‘John,’ she said, ‘you mustn’t eat any more 
things that will make you ill to-night. You 
emptied that dish of olives in front of you — I saw 
you do it — and you will be ill as sure as fate.’ 

‘Oh, no, I was most sparing, ’ he replied easily. 

‘John, indeed, you were not sparing. You 
took a lot of ice pudding — twice as much as you 
ought to have taken.’ 

‘ I will tell you what it is, my dear,’ said Sir 
John testily, ‘ if you go on as you have begun, 
you will be a first-class shrew in about six 
months more.’ 

‘ I don’t want to be a shrew,’ said Angelique, 

‘ but you know how ill that sort of thing makes 


264 THE MONEY SENSE 

you, and you know how careful the doctor says 
you ought to be.’ 

‘ Oh, nothing I took to-night will hurt me.’ 

‘Very well,’ said Angelique; ‘then when you 
get to Lady Martindale’s, have a good supper of 
salmon and lobster salad and a few plovers’ eggs; 
and then you had better ring for Wilson to come 
and put your poultices on.’ 

Now if Sir John had a dislike to anything, it 
was letting his valet, who had been with him for 
fifteen or sixteen years, know when he needed 
poultices. In his dressing-room there was a 
complete apparatus for the manufacture of mus- 
tard poultices — indeed, for the manufacture of 
several kinds of poultices — and on occasions 
when such things were needed, one of Sir John’s 
chiefest anxieties was that everything should be 
cleared away so that Wilson should know nothing 
about it in the morning. 

Angelique’s hint, however, had the desired 
effect, and he put his arm around her in an access 
of affection evoked by her care of him, ‘ There, 
little woman,’ he said, ‘I didn’t mean to be 
crusty. What a brute I am! You are far too 
good to me. I was an ass to eat what I did, and 
I will be very careful for the rest of the even- 
ing.’ 

Alas! his care being tardy, availed him nothing. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


265 


He was very ill during the course of that night, 
and Angelique got no rest; still worse, she found 
her thoughts more than once reverting to Ian 
Ingram, who had been in the general habit of 
going to sleep when he got into bed and waking 
up with the tea in the morning. 

Still, there were alleviations to her lot. Her 
visiting-list at this time was a thing to behold, a 
thing to envy. It boasted of no fewer than 
seven duchesses; and Angelique very soon began 
to regard social obligations as much in the light 
of an intolerable nuisance as if she had been 
born of the upper ten thousand, and had never 
yearned to be known in society. 

It would be hard to say why, but she found 
her tradespeople less obliging to Lady Berkeley 
than they had been to Mrs. Ian Ingram. They 
were all intensely civil ; they apologised profusely 
when insisting upon having cheques, but they 
insisted all the same; and as Angelique never 
had any money, and Sir John never seemed 
exactly willing to settle deficiencies in that 
respect, the situation soon became an extremely 
strained one. Then Angelique, with that strange 
habit of ignoring the lessons of yesterday, and of 
letting to-morrow take care of itself, went back 
to her old methods of raising money with which 
to meet present emergencies. Her first transac- 


266 


THE MONEY SENSE 


tion of the kind as Lady Berkeley was simple 
enough. She went to a big jeweller’s in Bond 
Street, and she spent a couple hundred pounds 
in jewellery — in diamonds. They never thought 
of refusing Lady Berkeley credit for the goods, 
and an obliging pawmbroker very soon changed 
the new purchases into ready money for half the 
amount. 

For a few days Angelique’s heart sang ‘ Begone 
dull care!’ and Sir John was more infatuated 
about her than ever. She took the opportunity 
of working the oracle with him, and of extract- 
ing the price of a new gown out of him. About 
this time they gave a little dinner-party to a 
royal gentleman, at which Angelique had it all 
her own way. 

‘My dear,’ said Sir John, when the Personage 
had gone away, ‘ you were adorable, you carried 
everything before you. I was never so proud in 
my life. ’ 

‘ I am afraid, John,’ said Angelique, ‘ that on 
the whole I have been rather a bad speculation 
to you. ’ 

‘Not at all, the most charming speculation I 
ever made in my life. By the bye, did you notice 
Lady Susan’s little daughter? How sweetly 
pretty and dainty she is! I knew her,’ Sir John 
went on, leaning back in his chair, and staring at 


THE MONEY SENSE 267 

the ceiling with a fatuous expression, ‘ I knew 
her before she was born — that is to say, I knew 
Lady Susan long before she married old Herring 
— long, long before. She was a pretty girl — how 
she could bring herself to marry old Herring 
nobody could ever tell; but fashionable women 
do do these extraordinary things, and I suppose 
they are satisfied with the life that such mar- 
riages bring them. ’ 

Angelique stared wide-eyed at her husband. 
‘Was it possible,’ her thoughts ran, ‘that this 
man had no knowledge, no conception of the fact 
that she too had married much in the same way 
as Lady Susan Herring ? Was it possible that he 
believed she had married him for love ? Oh, it 
was too incredible; it was preposterous!’ 

Sir John, still staring at the ceiling, went on: 

‘ Yes — there was a young fellow she was in love 
with — dear, dear, how well I remember it — years 
and years ago. I never quite knew the details of 
how and why the marriage never came off, but 
Lady Susan was reported to be heart-broken. 
Society always will have it that these fair 
creatures are heart-broken ; whereas, as a rule, 
they have no hearts to break, and would sell 
their souls for a handful of diamonds. I think 
she liked the fellow all the same; however, she 
married old Herring the banker, and little Miss 


268 THE MONEY SENSE 


Dulcie is the result. Well, well, well, perhaps 
she knew what she was doing better than any- 
body else. Lady Susan has had her affairs, and 
looks happy enough. I should like to paint the 
little girl,’ Sir John added in a meditative tone. 

‘ You would like to paint her?’ said Angelique. 

‘ Yes, she would make a very pretty subject for 
an Academy picture. I must see if I cannot 
arrange it with Lady Susan herself. ’ 

By some curious combination of thought, a 
wild thrill of jealousy shot through Angelique’s 
heart. ‘Are you ever going to paint me?’ she 
asked, blurting the question out as if she were 
ashamed of it. 

‘ To paint you? Yes, some day, my dear child, 
when I have nothing else to do.’ 

Angelique turned scarlet. 

‘No, I didn’t mean that, my dear, but one 
doesn’t paint portraits for pleasure, one paints 
portraits as a question of bread and butter — or 
cake — or champagne, or something of that kind. 
And, of course, one cannot sell one’s own wife 
except in a fancy study. When I have plenty of 
time, and we have plenty of money, I will paint 
you — I mean I will paint your portrait, and we 
will send it to the Academy, and it shall hang in 
the studio, but this season I haven’t even time 
to think of such a thing.’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 269 

‘ Then you don’t mean to paint little Miss 
Dulcie for love ?’ said Angelique. 

Sir John turned and looked at her. ‘ My dear 
child,’ he said, ‘ I never paint anybody for love — 
only unknown painters do that. These matters 
are all questions of business, hard cut-and-dried 
business with me.’ 

‘But, John, you are always promising people 
you will paint them.’ 

‘ On the contrary, I am always telling — at 
least, I am very often telling ladies that I should 
like to paint them — that is quite a different 
thing.’ 

‘ Oh, I see. ’ 

She was satisfied, and yet she had received a 
shock. She had so long regarded Sir John as a 
sort of knight-errant — though Heaven knows 
with what cause — that the revulsion of feeling 
on discovering him to be the most prosaic and 
business-like of mortals was intolerable to her. 
Every day she learned more and more of the 
reason of Sir John’s immense personal popularity. 
She grew accustomed to have to ask people to 
dinner whom in the old days she would have 
regarded as simply being not worth the trouble. 
She grew to value Sir John’s courtliness at even 
less than its proper value ; indeed, the idyllic and 
charming life which she had once pictured to 


270 THE MONEY SENSE 

herself as the life which she would live with him 
had long ago vanished into thin air. 

So time went on, and as the months slipped by, 
and she grew to understand more clearly what 
characteristics were most necessary to the suc- 
cess of a distinguished painter, so she grew to 
loathe her new life just as she had loathed her 
life with Ian Ingram. Just, did I say? Nay, 
with every hour, more and more. Ian Ingram 
had done generous acts from pure generosity, 
and almost without hope of return; Sir John 
Berkeley was never generous except with a 
purpose; and the bitterest time of all to Angel- 
ique was when he was generous towards a 
certain end — that end personal indulgence and 
gratification. 


CHAPTER XXI 

It must not be imagined that Angelique was 
weary of the outer life that she was living. She 
had learned to speak of social duties as one would 
speak of the treadmill, to speak of them indeed 
as a treadmill; but in her heart of hearts she 
was never weary of the purple, she never wished 
to lay down the sceptre. It was still untold 
satisfaction to her to attend some Royal garden- 
party or a dinner at some ducal mansion; it was 
still sweet as honey to her that she was able 
to dispense tickets for the various functions at 
Burlington House; that she was welcome at all 
great first nights; that she had now the power 
to make or mar the fortune of any new enter- 
taining celebrity; that she invariably passed into 
a dining-room among the few first couples who 
formed the little procession into dinner; that she 
was sure of her footing in any capital in Europe 
in which she and Sir John chose to pitch their 

271 


272 


THE MONEY SENSE 


tent for a while. She was never tired of her 
carriage with its great black horses, its shining 
brass-mounted harness, its lavish display of the 
Berkeley crest ; she was never tired of making 
up smart little dinners, or of seeing her name in 
the papers; it was only the drudgery of card- 
leaving and the keeping up of a large acquaint- 
ance which in any sense bored her. 

She certainly did Sir John credit; and if she 
spent ten thousand a year where she ought only 
to have spent six, well, she certainly had her 
money’s worth in the way of show. Still, even 
when a man is at the top of the tree, if the times 
are bad, the highest must needs be prudent, and 
live within their means. 

‘ My dear,’ said Sir John to her one day, ‘ we 
are spending too much money.’ 

‘ I don’t think so,’ said Angelique carelessly. 

‘ I don’t think about it, I am perfectly sure we 
are. You must pull in a little.’ 

‘ I can’t possibly pull in till the end of the 
season,’ Angelique declared. 

‘ My dear girl, you must pull in, I tell you. 
Don’t give any more dinners except what you 
have got invitations out for. I have not done 
as well this year as I ought to have done; in 
fact, I have painted six less portraits than I did 
last year. ’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


27s 

‘ I wonder how that is,’ said Angelique, who 
did not like the idea of retrenching at all.’ 

‘ You have not very far to look for the cause,’ 
answered Sir John, resting his elbows on the 
breakfast-table and regarding her steadfastly. 

‘ What do you mean ?’ 

‘ I have got married — that is quite suflScient to 
account for a considerable falling off.’ 

‘ What can your being married or not have to 
do with the way you paint a portrait ?’ 

‘My dear girl,’ said Sir John cynically, ‘the 
way one paints a portrait has nothing whatever 
to do with the amount of portraits one gets to 
paint. ’ 

‘ But why not ?’ 

‘ Oh, other things all tend for and against.’ 

‘How?’ 

‘ Well, there are plenty of women — rich women 
— who would go to an unmarried Sir John to be 
painted who would not come to your hus- 
band.’ 

‘ But why?’ 

‘Why? Well, I don’t know. It is a fact.’ 

‘ I think it is exceedingly nasty,’ said Angeli- 
que. ‘ I thought women had their portraits 
painted because — well, because they wanted to 
have their portraits, and wanted them done by 
the best man.’ 

18 


274 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ In that case,’ said Sir John, ‘ they would not 
come to me. They would go to Bertram, who is 
far the cleverest portrait painter of the day, 
but whose wife is fearfully jealous of him, and 
invades his studio at all manner of inconvenient 
times and seasons. ’ 

‘Well, John, I never do that,’ said Angelique. 

■ ‘ No, you have been most discreet — most dis- 
creet in that way; but, at the same time, that is 
the reason why I have not painted as many 
portraits this last two years as for a good many 
years past. And besides that, the times are 
hard; people haven’t got much money to- spend 
in pictures. Why, half the fellows that are on 
the walls at Burlington House are in pawn to 
their framemakers.’ 

‘In pawn to their framemakers!’ 

‘Yes. Their framemakers go on providing 
them with frames; and when they sell a picture, 
their framemakers take the money — or, at all 
events, have a lien upon it.’ 

‘Good gracious! Then what is the use of 
their going on ?’ 

‘ My dear girl, I don’t know, nobody does know. 
The new generation is an artistic one; the new 
generation wants to be all great men and women; 
and every girl and boy brat that can daub the 
contents of a shilling paint-box over an illus- 


THE MONEY SENSE 


275 


trated paper or magazine with any semblance 
of decency, makes up their mind that they will 
be the great painter of the future. It is just the 
same with everything else. Look at the things 
that want to get on the stage!’ 

Angelique went scarlet. That chapter in her 
past was a chapter which had never been laid 
open to Sir John’s discriminating eyes. Angeli- 
que had kept discreetly silent on the subject of her 
early ambitions. ‘Yes, I suppose they do,’ she 
said, with admirable carelessness. 

‘Do what?’ asked Sir John, whose thoughts 
had wandered into some fresh channel. 

‘ Want to get on the stage, didn’t you say?’ 

‘ Oh — yes, yes, yes. I was talking to Delacourt 
the other day about that very thing. “ My dear 
Johnnie,” he said, in his peculiar rasping voice, 
and with his cheery twinkle of the eye, “I assure 
you, I have regiments of young women come to 
my theatre every day of my life. It is a regular 
Girls’ Friendly! I used to argue with ’em, and 
I used to put ’em in the right way, and find out 
whether they had got any talent; but. Lord love 
you, my dear boy, I haven’t got time for it now! 
I tell ’em all they are charming, and I put their 
names down in a big book, and I tell ’em when I 
have got an opening for ’em I will let ’em know. 
It is the easiest way for me; and if ‘Hope 


276 THE MONEY SENSE 

deferred maketh the heart sick,’ why, it’s a good 
thing for them in the end!” ’ 

How well she remembered this very man 
Delacourt looking her up and down in her 
Wavertree gown, and how he had told her she 
was quite charming — quite charming — and that 
he had no doubt he should be able to find 
a corner for her by and by. And then he had 
patted her on the shoulder and bade her good 
day with a cheeriness which hustled her out 
of the room before she had realised whether she 
was standing on her head or her heels. Oh, it 
went home to Angelique’s inmost soul! Dela- 
court never had let her know. She was one of 
the twelve hundred whose names had gone down 
in the big book at the Flamingo Theatre. She 
had met Mr. Delacourt a good many times since 
that day; she had entertained him more than 
once at her own table, but he had not recog- 
nised her; she had made no more impression 
upon him than all the rest of the crowd of 
neophytes, whom he lumped together as a 
‘Girls’ Friendly.’ 

‘ They say,’ Sir John went on, ‘ that Delacourt 
makes love to every decent-looking girl that 
tries to get an engagement at his theatre; and I 
have heard they go so far as to say that there is 
always a clause inserted in his actress’s agree- 


THE MONEY SENSE 


277 


ments that he shall make love to her when he 
likes. Ha! ha! — these things are very funny. 
Why, my dear, I heard the other day that I had 
married one of my own models!’ 

‘ Oh, did you ? I suppose all painters do marry 
their models according to the outside world,’ said 
Angelique sharply. 

‘ I suppose they do. Some of them do in real 
earnest. Now, there’s Puskisson — he married 
his model. By Jove! she’s been model to every 
one of us in her time. People who chance 
to hear it nowadays wonder what the devil she 
sat for, for an uglier little woman you couldn’t 
find in a day’s march; but I tell you, she 
had the prettiest naked feet I ever saw in my 
life. She sat for the feet of my picture of 
Psyche. ’ 

‘ Mrs. Puskisson ?' said Angelique. 

‘Mrs. Puskisson,’ Sir John repeated. ‘And 
Puskisson married her and brought her back, 
and she showed at a great party that Lady 
Grantham gave. That was the first time she 
ever showed as Mrs. Puskisson. I had the 
honour,’ Sir John went on, ‘ of taking her in to 
supper, and she had the audacity to ask me 
whether I was the John Berkeley who had 
painted that wonderful picture of Cupid and 
Psyche(which, you know. Lord Grantham bought. 


278 THE MONEY SENSE 

and which was hanging in the gallery at that 
moment). I replied that I was, and I took her 
to see it. I went so far,’ Sir John continued, 
‘as to point out the beauty of Psyche’s feet. If 
you believe me, Angelique, that little devil never 
turned a hair. She said that they were lovely 
feet, and that she thought there was no more 
attractive feature in a pretty woman. And 
that to me who had painted her from the nude 
dozens of times! It only shows what impudence 
can do.’ 

‘ Yes indeed,’ said Angelique. ‘ Really, I had 
no idea Mrs. Puskisson had ever been anything 
of that kind, because she is so awfully sniffy 
about people. ’ 

‘ Mrs. Puskisson ?’ 

‘ Yes.’ 

‘ She has to be, but it pays her — it pays her. 
Well, after all, there was nothing to be gained 
by her being known everywhere as Puskisson’ s 
model. But now you know what is being 
said about you — that you were one of my 
models.’ 

‘ Nobody can say that I ever sat to them,’ said 
Angelique. 

‘ W’’ell, nobody can say it with truth^'* said Sir 
John, ‘ but there are plenty of fellows who will 
say that you did, just to seem in the know. 


THE MONEY SENSE 


279 


However, about the money, my dear, I find that 
we have been spending- a great deal more than 
we ought to do, and it will take all my ready 
money to square ourselves. You must limit 
yourself — three thousand a year is quite as much 
as we ought to spend at present until times 
mend.’ 

‘ It will be very difficult,’ said Angelique. 
‘ And right in the middle of the season.’ 

‘ Oh well, slowdown gently — slow down gently. 
You must have got clothes enough now for the 
rest of the time, and we have given a great many 
parties. For the rest of the season we will only 
give dinners that count; we will only give dinners 
that mean business.’ 

‘ Well, I will do the best I can,’ said Angelique; 
‘ but, of course, you set the scale to begin with, 
and it is very difficult to alter it now.’ 

‘Oh, no, it will be quite easy. It isn’t like 
drying up at the beginning of the season.’ He 
went on opening his letters as he spoke, and 
presently uttered an exclamation of surprise. 

‘ How come you to owe such a lot of money to 
Michelle ?’ he asked. 

‘ To Michelle ?’ said Angelique. 

‘ Yes, to Michelle — one hundred and ninety-five 
pounds! Why, what on earth do you mean by 
running up such bills as these ?’ 


28 o 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ Oh, that,’ said Angelique carelessly. ‘ Yes, 
I do owe Michelle something.’ 

‘Something! My dear girl, you are not run- 
ning up many bills like this I hope?’ 

‘ I have got some bills,’ said Angelique in- 
differently. 

‘ And how is it going to be paid?’ 

‘ I should hope you are going to pay it,’ said 
she. ‘ But how came you to open it?’ 

‘ It is written to me. This creature says she 
has asked you over and over again for the money, 
and that you do not take any notice of her letters, 
therefore she appeals to me, and says that she 
will put it into the County Court unless it is paid 
within three days.’ 

‘ What a beast!’ said Angelique. She felt that 
it was no use to shirk the matter now that it 
had come actually before him. 

‘ Angelique,’ said Sir John, ‘ I believe you are 
in debt. ’ 

‘A little,’ said Angelique. 

‘ Well, but look here now; I give you three 
hundred a year and a very handsome house- 
keeping allowance — I am not going to have my 
wife’s name bandied about in letters of this kind. 
Three hundred a year is quite enough for a 
woman of your position to spend on dress, and 
you must make it suffice. ’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


281 


‘ I can’t make it suffice,’ said Angelique. 

‘ But you must. Goodness knows, you have 
had to make it suffice before.’ 

‘ I never did, ’ she said. 

‘Well, if Ingram was a little ass, I am not. 
Perhaps Ingram made his money more easily than 
I do, and Ingram had less to lose by having him- 
self talked about. / don’t keep up a separate 
establishment.’ 

‘ I never accused you of that, ’ said Angelique, 
at once turning hard and repellent. 

‘ It would make no difference if you did. I 
don’t keep up a separate establishment, and 
therefore I am not going to pay through the 
nose as he had to do. It was only yesterday that 
I paid a bill of fifteen pounds for something I gave 
you a cheque for six months ago.’ 

‘ What was that?’ 

‘ Well, it was for that lamp for the dining-room. 
I gave you the money for that lamp, you know, 
Angelique; I gave you a separate cheque that you 
could go and pay ready money. You would have 
the lamp to hang over the dining-room table, and 
you went to a shop where I was not accustomed 
to deal, and I gave you the money to go and pay 
for it. What did you do with that money ?’ 

‘ I am sure I don’t know,’ she said. 

‘ It is all very well; but if you do this sort of 


282 


THE MONEY SENSE 


thing, I shall not be able to trust you at all, and 
I shall have to pay the house-bills myself, which 
will be most unpalatable to me.’ 

‘ I don’t see why you should speak to me like 
this,’ said Angelique. 

‘ Because you have appropriated my money.’ 

‘ Your money?’ 

‘ Yes, my money. I give you freely everything 
that I can afford; I never pretended to you that 
I was a millionaire — you were glad enough to 
marry me.’ 

‘ I am sorry enough now,’ said Angelique, put- 
ting her head in the air. 

‘ Are you ? And so am I. ’ 

‘What! You are sorry you married me?’ 

‘ Sometimes very, very sorry. You don’t seem 
to realise what I have had to give up in trying 
to make you happy. It’s no use blinking the 
matter — it has made thousands a year difference 
to me. I have no wish other than to make 
you happy, but I cannot give you what I have 
not got, you must be perfectly well aware of 
that. ’ 

‘ You must be perfectly well aware, John, that 
I cannot dress upon nothing.’ 

‘ I don’t call three hundred a year and all the 
presents I have given you besides — all the extras 
that I have given you — dressing on nothing. I 


THE MONEY SENSE 283 

presume you had not three hundred a year at 
home just for pin-money?’ 

‘ I never professed that I had, but then neither 
had I a distinguished position to keep up.’ 

‘It isn’t necessary to keep up a distinguished 
position by reckless extravagance and by deliber- 
ately deceiving me.’ 

‘ I have not deceived you. ’ 

‘ You have taken money which I gave you for 
an express purpose and appropriated it to another. 
I might call it by an uglier word than deception 
— I might call it stealing, I paid the bill yester- 
day, and I should probably not have mentioned 
it to you if I had not received this letter this 
morning; but a woman with three hundred a 
year for pin-money has no right to run up a bill 
for one hundred and ninety-five pounds at any 
one establishment — unless at a Whiteley’s, where 
one bill would cover the main part of her ex- 
penditure.’ 

For a moment Angelique felt cold and sick, for 
a remembrance came over her of the many bills 
that she owed in all parts of London, for all 
sorts of things and at all manner of cost. She 
looked at her husband, who was courtly and 
suave and gracious no longer, but stern and angry, 
v^ith a red spot burning on either cheek, and his 
lips tightly compressed. For a moment she for- 


284 THE MONEY SENSE 

got that he was old, and that he had been a dis- 
appointment to her; she only remembered that 
he was the arbitrator of her fortunes, that he 
was the one who stood between her and a world 
of debt. Moved either by an impulse of remorse 
or an access of fear, she jumped up from her 
place at the table, and, with a return of her old 
girlish impulsiveness, ran around to his side and 
flung herself down upon her knees beside him. 
‘John,’ she said, ‘ I have been a fool and an 
idiot. ... No, don’t stop me ... I have rewarded 
you vilely for all your kindness and goodness to 
me. I ... I have been mad, I think. I have not 
been myself. You are not half harsh enough 
with me. Only bear with me this once, and I 
will be — so different, so different.’ 

The anger all died out of his face. ‘ Angelique, ’ 
he said, AngeliqueV 

So Michelle’s bill was paid — and Angelique’s 
soul had passed a step lower down. 


CHAPTER XXII 

For a little time it seemed as if the old idyllic 
feeling had come back between Sir John and 
Angelique during the few days following their 
quarrel and reconciliation. He paid Michelle’s 
bill, only extracting from Angelique a promise 
that she would never deal again at an establish- 
ment which had treated her so dishonourably. 
He also gave her a hundred pounds towards her 
other liabilities. No, I am wrong there; he did 
not give it towards her liabilities, but he asked 
her if a hundred pounds would- clear her, and 
Angelique, who was a coward at heart, was 
foolish enough to say yes. 

She dutifully began a system of economising; 
but Sir John was one of those people who loved 
his dinner, and as the first night that they dined 
alone together the bill of fare was distinctly a 
meagre one, he took great exception thereto. 
‘ My dear, this dinner is really not reasonable. 
You had better give that cook notice. ’ 


28s 


286 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ It isn’t cook’s fault,’ said Angelique. 

‘ Then whose fault is it?’ 

‘Well — it is cheap, John.’ 

‘Oh, cheap be — well, bothered! We can pull 
in a bit, you know; we needn’t give so many 
dinner-parties and so on, but we must be fed, we 
must have life sustained. For goodness’ sake, 
don’t give me such a dinner as this again !’ 

Angelique was very judicious. She carried her 
chair round as soon as the equally meagre desert 
was put upon the table and tucked her hand into 
his. ‘ Dear old boy, ’ she said, ‘ I am sorry your 
dinner did not please you, but, really, I did it for 
the best.’ 

‘Of course you did, I don’t deny that for a 
moment, but we needn’t reduce quite so far as 
that. Why, when you have been so nice—and so 
kind to me — is the time when I want to rejoice 
and to have a little feast. But, never mind, 
dearest, I will take you to the Olympus, and we 
will have a little supper, just by our two selves.’ 

As the Olympus was at that time the smartest 
as well as the most expensive supper club in 
London, Angelique was more than willing to be 
seen there with her distinguished husband en 
iHe-h-tHe, So, after looking in at the opera, 
they went on together to the Olympus, and Sir 
John gave her the best supper of which the club 


THE MONEY SENSE 287 

could boast. It was an ineffective way of econo- 
mising; for Angelique’s little dinner economies 
would not have made a difference of ten shillings 
to their regular bill of fare, while that supper at 
the Olympus cost at least five guineas. More- 
over, Sir John was most terribly ill during the 
small hours that followed, and Angelique felt all 
the old disgust and loathing creeping over her 
again. I think if she had been quite free finan- 
cially that she would have carried out her threat 
of ringing for Wilson to come and attend to his 
master; but there was too much hanging upon it 
for her to take drastic measures just then, and 
so she fortified herself for her unpalatable task 
of mixing mustard poultices for a self-indulgent 
glutton by taking a strong dose of neat brandy. 
And in the morning Sir John tottered down to 
breakfast looking at least ten years older. 

‘ Oh, no — take it away. A bit of dry toast and 
a cup of strong tea — that’s all I can touch. I 
don’t feel very well this morning,’ was his ex- 
planation to the attentive servant, who pressed 
a savoury-smelling bloater and scrambled eggs 
upon him. ‘ My dear,’ he went on, when they 
were once more alone, ‘ why did you let me eat 
that last night ? It was awfully good, but 
it played the very devil with me.’ 

‘It did,’ said Angelique. 


288 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘You ought not to have let me eat it, you 
know,’ he persisted. 

‘Well, I know I ought not, John,’ she said, 
quite pathetically, ‘ but I was very happy last 
night, and I — I forgot that there were things you 
could not eat’ 

‘Well, well, well, don’t say any more about it. 
I don’t know that it wasn’t worth it. By Jove, 
it was a good pdtk^ wasn’t it? We must go and 
have supper at the Olympus again.’ 

‘ I don’t consider that it is cheap,’ said 
Angelique. 

‘Cheap? Oh, cheap be — bothered!’ returned 
Sir John, who had forgotten his recent desire for 
economy. 

For a long time that was the last that 
Angelique heard of economising. Sir John got 
over his attack of disorder, and for a week or 
two lived in a state of idyllic happiness varied by 
fits of extreme irritability. They, however, did 
not last long, but passed off under the sun of 
Angelique’s smiles. 

And the bills came in more persistently than 
ever. You see, she had been married nearly 
three years to Sir John, and that had been time 
enough to raise herself a very tidy crop of debts. 
She lived in a state of continual dread and 
anxiety. Every day it seemed that some fresh 


THE MONEY SENSE 289 

shock came in the shape of a personal applica- 
tion to Sir John, or a more peremptory demand 
on pinkish paper. Little by little the light was 
let in upon him. If Angelique had been wise and 
brave, she would have drawn up the blind of con- 
cealment so that not a crevice should be hidden 
from sight. But Angelique was neither wise nor 
brave. In truth, Sir John was the only person 
that she had ever been afraid of in her life. She 
was genuinely and actually in terror of him ; and 
when each fresh claim came before him, and he 
blustered and raved at her deceptions and her 
wilful wanton extravagance, he always put the 
same question, and she always gave the same 
answer. ‘Is this the last? Do you owe any- 
thing else?’ And the answer was invariably, 
‘ There are no more besides this one.’ She had 
never been afraid of Ian Ingram. At worst her 
husband had bruised her body — Sir John Berkeley 
had the power, and used it, of bruising her very 
soul. It was always just the same — a fierce and 
blustering storm on his part, and on hers protesta- 
tions and tears, ending in that pitiful love- 
making by which she was selling her soul. And 
slowly but surely she grew to fortifying herself 
after these scenes by a dose of that same cordial 
to which Sir John had flown the first time that 
she had seen him upset by over-indulgence in 
19 


290 


THE MONEY SENSE 


rich cream — liqueur brandy. She seemed poised 
like a helpless needle between two magnets of 
fairly equal strength; and if she passed out of the 
Scylla of lust and desire, it was only to find 
herself in the Charybdis of gluttony and self- 
indulgence. 

As time passed on, things did not get better, 
but worse. The scenes between them became 
more violent, and love-making less efficacious. 
There were visitors to the beautiful house in 
Holland Park, the like of whom had never been 
within its walls before — visitors of Semitic aspect, 
with hungry, greedy eyes full filled with a merci- 
less and rapacious desire for justice, and a fixed 
determination to get it at any cost. 

With every day, Angelique’s terror of her 
husband grew greater. She had many pressing 
invitations to go home, or on different visits, but 
she refused them all, saying that she could not 
possibly leave Sir John. The real truth was, 
however, that she was afraid to leave the coast 
free for Sir John to gather further information 
about her liabilities. Her mother fretted not a 
little that Angelique had so completely cast off 
her own people as she had done since her 
marriage to Sir John. But Angelique had drifted 
into this attitude without in any way intending 
to do so. During the first year of her second 


THE MONEY SENSE 


391 


marriage she had twice invited her mother on 
short visits, and Gwyn had stayed with her a good 
deal, but latterly there had been no question 
of any of her own people coming near her. 
Angelique had seemed quite to drift away from 
them; in truth, she was keeping herself at as 
great a distance as she could, because she was 
ashamed to let them know the exact position of 
affairs between herself and Sir John. 

The society world guessed little or nothing. 
When they went out together Angelique was the 
same naive dxA charming woman that she had been 
as Mrs. Ian Ingram, a little jealous of Sir John’s 
position — or, I should more correctly say, for his 
great position, always speaking of him as a person 
of great authority, and exacting a certain homage 
on his behalf from all those with whom she was 
brought in contact. The world in the main thought 
what a delightful thing it was that an elderly man 
should have found a beautiful young woman who 
would appreciate him thoroughly. But Angelique 
knew perfectly well that Gwyn, with her quiet, 
observant eyes, would be able to read between the 
lines; she knew that her mother would irritate 
Sir John probably more than anything else in 
the world could have power to do, and therefore 
she felt that they were for the present best 
apart. And at this time the strain upon her 


292 


THE MONEY SENSE 


nerves was more than she could bear; indeed, she 
frequently had recourse to the help of that 
dangerous cordial, which gives nothing more than 
fictitious strength to those who fly to it. With 
every day that passed by the state of affairs grew 
worse rather than better, until Sir John almost 
ceased to be civil to her. 

‘ I think, ’ she said one day, goaded at last into 
turning upon him, ‘I think that I will go home. 
I cannot stand this life any longer.’ 

‘You will not go home,’ said Sir John; ‘you 
will stay here; you will continue your place as 
my wife. I shall not give you the chance of 
clearing out of your liabilities, as that poor devil 
Ingram did.’ 

‘ How do you knov/ anything about my liabili- 
ties ?’ 

‘ I have made inquiries,’ said Sir John. ‘Ingram 
went bankrupt because he could not pay your 
debts. I am not going bankrupt, nor shall I 
give you grounds for ge'sting a divorce. Things 
are bad enough as they are, but I am not going 
to have my name bandied about in a matter 
of matrimonial scandal. By the bye, I hope that 
you quite believed me — I mean that you quite 
understood that I meant what I said when I 
told you the other day that there must be no 
fresh debts incurred. You have never been open 


THE MONEY SENSE 


293 


with me; and although the last time I paid 
one of your bills you swore to me that there 
were no more, I don’t believe you. I am quite 
willing to treat your old debts, as I become 
cognisant of them, as having been incurred 
partly through my own fault, but at the first 
sign of a new one I shall take means to prevent 
any others accumulating.’ 

‘ What do you mean ?’ asked Angelique. 

‘ I mean that there is a simple way of stopping 
a wife’s credit.’ 

‘What! you would advertise me?’ 

‘ I would advertise you. I should hate to do 
it — I shall not do it unless I am driven to it — 
but against such women as you there should be 
some means of protection for husbands. You 
mistook your metier when you went in for 
matrimony — you would have played the other 
rdle to perfection. ’ 

‘ How dare you say this to me?’ cried 
Angelique, stung by her outraged womanhood 
out of all remembrance of her fear for him. 

‘It is the simple truth,’ said Sir John coldly, 
‘and it is the more honest position of the two. 
A man knows what to expect from his mistress, 
and that is — nothing; but he does expect, and 
has a right to expect, some consideration from 
his wife.’ 


294 THE MONEY SENSE 

‘I suppose I am your wife,’ said Angelique 
bitterly. 

‘Unfortunately, yes,’ retorted Sir John. 

‘ In the eyes of the law^^ said Angelique 
deliberately, 

‘ Unfortunately, yes, ’ he repeated. 

‘ I ought to have said — in the eyes of the 
world,' The words dropped out one by one like 
molten lead. Sir John looked up. Angelique 
went on speaking in the slow, pitiless, merciless 
voice of a woman stung beyond endurance. ‘ You 
have not hesitated over and over again to throw 
in my face the fact that I divorced my first 
husband, I did so hy your advice. I was pre- 
pared, as you must remember perfectly well, 
to go back and make the best of a bad business. 
You, you advised me to cut myself free while 
I had the chance — you put it into my head that 
there was another marriage waiting for me. 
Bitterly have I rued the day! Many times I 
know that I have been a fool, know I that I 
have been wanton and extravagant, that I have 
lost my head over and over again, but I never 
deliberately deceived anybody as you deceived 
me. I have been a fool — yes, I know it, and 
many a woman has been a fool in the same way — 
but it was you who taught me first. But do 
not press me too hard, do not taunt me any more 


THE MONEY SENSE 


295 


with your jeers of not giving me the chance of 
divorcing yovr—you cannot help it if I choose to 
do it. ’ 

‘It is a lie!’ thundered Sir John. ‘I have 
never wronged you.’ 

‘Not in that way,’ breathed Angelique, ‘not 
in that way, John, but the decision does not rest 
with youy btit with me. And if I do not use my 
power, it will not be because I cannot — you 
know that as well as I do; if I do not free myself, 
it will only be because I am proud of the 
name that you have given me; it will be because 
I genuinely wish to avoid — a great scandal. 
I have been through the mire once, and I am not 
minded to wade through it again. But if you 
goad me too far, God only knows what will hap- 
pen to me and to — you. I am willing to abase 
myself to you, I have abased myself — degraded 
myself — and for what ? Because of my folly in 
in trying to do you credit, because I have spent 
money as I have drunk brandy — to drown my 
regret for what you taunt me with — having 
thrown away my first husband. ’ 


CHAPTER XXIII 

About this time Sir John went to Scotland for 
the purpose of painting the portrait of a very 
distinguished personage. He was away but little 
more than a week, for he had had some sittings, 
and would not have had to go so far to complete 
them at that time of year, had not his sitter 
been about to leave England to take up the post 
of Governor-General in one of the colonies. 

He had not been gone out of the house more 
than a couple of hours when Angelique had a 
visitor. At first she declined to receive him, 
said that the servant was to say that she was 
not at home, that he had made a mistake; but 
second thoughts are frequently the most prudent, 
if not the best, and before the man had left the 
room, Angelique changed her mind and said, 
‘Well — wait a minute. Yes — perhaps I had 
better see this person, as Sir John is not at 
home. Where is he ?’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


297 


‘ In the boudoir, my lady. ’ 

‘Very well, I will come in a moment.’ 

Her visitor was unmistakably a Jew, though 
not one of those terrible persons who had inter- 
viewed Sir John at different times, but a neat 
and dapper little man, well dressed, and with 
very little trace of the Israelitish thickness of 
speech. He very soon explained his business. 
‘ Really, Lady Berkeley, I am awfully sorry to 
trouble you,’ he said familiarly, ‘ but that little 
bill of Oppenheimer’s — I am afraid it will have 
to be paid.’ 

‘ Oppenheimer? But surely they can wait?’ 

‘ Perhaps they can, but I am afraid they 
won’t,’ said Mr. Moses Benjamin, in his most 
friendly tones. ‘ You see, they have got some 
sort of an idea that all is not quite right between 
you and Sir John.’ 

‘That is the greatest mistake in the world,’ 
said Angelique with dignity. 

‘Well, so I told them, because Sir John settled 
that last little matter of yours without a word ; but 
Oppenheimersdeclare they must have their money 
within three days or they will take proceedings.’ 

‘ How much is it?’ said Angelique shortly. 

‘ Three hundred and twenty-five pounds.’ 

‘Three hundred and twenty-five pounds! 
Within three days ?’ 


298 THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ Yes.’ 

‘ I am sure I don’ t know what all the money 
is for.’ 

‘Oh, you have had the most of the money,’ 
said Mr. Moses Benjamin affably. ‘There was 
that little kite we flew six months ago, and 
there was a fifty that Oppenheimer advanced yQU, 
and there was that matter of Mrs. Barnadiston’s 
they arranged for you — of course, they all sum 
up, with the interest and the expenses and that. ’ 

‘ Oh yes, I am not disputing it,’ said Angelique. 

‘ It is a nuisance having to pay it, all the same.’ 

‘ Ah yes, that is the worst of flying kites and 
having little transactions of this kind. I always 
tell my clients that there is no comfort like the 
comfort of being a ready-money devil. ’ 

It is no exaggeration to say that Angelique 
would like to have murdered the affable little 
man of business — ‘ financier,’ he called himself. 
I think that in all her life she had never known 
so thoroughly the thirst for blood as she did at 
that moment. However, she could not afford to 
quarrel with the little double-barrelled Jew, for 
of a truth he had done her many good turns, 
more than any other business man with whom 
she had been connected. 

‘ Three hundred and twenty-five pounds. And 
that will clear them entirely ?’ 


THE MONEY SENSE 


299 


* That will clear them entirely. Hard people 
are Oppenheimers — I wish you had never gone 
to them.’ 

‘ So do I,’ said Angelique. ‘ However, call 
upon me the day after to-morrow, and I will see 
if I cannot raise the money.’ 

She asked Mr. Moses Benjamin if he would 
have a brandy-and-soda, and as he accepted her 
offer of hospitality, she rang the bell and ordered 
it to be brought in; and though she did not join 
him, when he had gone she poured out half a 
tumblerful of the neat brandy, dashed a little 
seltzer into it, and tossed it down her throat, in 
a way which would have told a doctor that she 
was well accustomed to fortifying herself in the 
like manner. 

Then she rang the bell. ‘Johnson,’ she said, 
‘just call down the telephone and tell them I 
want the brougham as soon as they can get it 
ready. And don’t let me see anybody else.’ 

‘ Not anybody on business, my lady?’ 

‘ No, not anybody. I am going out as soon as 
I can have the carriage.’ 

‘Very good, my lady,’ .said Johnson. 

Then Angelique went up to her bedroom, and 
having made her toilet, she sat down to think. 
Three hundred and twenty-five pounds! She 
knew no more at that moment where to get 


300 


THE MONEY SENSE 


three hundred and twenty-five pounds than she 
knew where to get wings. Three hundred and 
twenty-five pounds in three days’ time — it was a 
difficult problem. She bit her lips, and then she 
got up and looked at herself in the glass; then 
she went and opened her dressing-case; and, 
taking out a little bottle filled with a clear, 
colourless fluid, she looked at it long and earnestly, 
after which with a shudder she put it back again 
and shut down the lid. No — not that way. She 
had no courage. Three hundred and twenty-five 
pounds! Ah! — there was Darnley. Darnley 
was rich, Darnley was well known to be eccen- 
trically generous, Darnley was the most intimate 
friend her husband had in the whole world, she 
would go and tell Darnley all about it — at least 
what would sound like all about it. She would 
tell him that she had got into a difficulty, and 
that she was afraid of Sir John. Darnley, the 
head of a great private bank, was so rich that a 
few hundreds would be nothing to him; he would 
do it for John’s sake — that would be the way. 
She, breathed freely once more, but, all the same, 
when she found herself in Darnley’s office, all her 
courage oozed out at the finger-tips, and for the 
life of her she could not have told him the entire 
truth. Therefore, instead of making a clean 
breast of it and telling him that Sir John was 


THE MONEY SENSE 


301 


very angry with her for having got into debt, 
that this bill had come in, and that she did not 
dare tell him of it, and that, if he would let her 
have the money, she would pay it back as she 
could, she told him quite a different story. She 
led him to believe that times had been very bad, 
and that Sir John was embarrassed; and she 
implored him, for the sake of their old friendship, 
to lend her four hundred pounds. 

Darnley wrote the cheque like a true Briton. 
‘ Now, my dear lady,’ he said when Angelique 
rose to take her leave, ‘ don’t let Johnnie worry 
himself about this. I know the times have been 
very bad for painters, but Johnnie knows me, 
and Johnnie knows — or ought to know by this 
time — that he can pay me back or do the other 
thing at his own time. I shall never ask him for 
it. If he has so much money by and by that he 
doesn’t know what to do with it, why, he can 
remember that he owes Ralph Darnley a trifle. ’ 

‘ Oh, Mr. Darnley, you are good!’ exclaimed 
Angelique fervidly. ‘ You are so good, and you 
don’t know what this will spare me. I don’t 
know what John would say if he knew that I had 
asked you.’ 

‘ What ? Doesn’ t Johnnie know ?’ 

‘ Well — you see, he is in Scotland, but, of 
course, I shall tell him.’ 


302 


THE MONEY SENSE 


‘ Oh, it will be all right. There is no reason 
for him to be embarrassed while his friends are 
able to write cheques.’ 

If Ralph Darnley had only known it, his kind- 
ness and generosity that day sent Angelique on 
her downward course with an impetus which was 
little short of diabolical. Having once tasted 
the sweets of friendship, and discovered such an 
easy way of getting out of her difficulties, she 
tried the same game again and again, until there 
was not a single old friend of Sir John’s whom 
she had not utilized more or less in the same 
way. 

With regard to her old embarrassments, be- 
tween what she had got from Sir John, or rather 
what Sir John had been practically forced to pay 
out for her, and what she had borrowed from his 
friends, they became rapidly reduced ; and then, 
if Angelique had had the good sense to remain 
within the limits of her legitimate income, she 
might soon have been out of all her difficulties. 

Unfortunately, even the most good-natured 
people sometimes want to have loans refunded, 
and sometimes the most good-natured people are 
cursed with habits which they are pleased to 
call business-like. Now it happened that Ralph 
Darnley was one of those persons. As a matter 
of course, he had entered Lady Berkeley’s debt in 


THE MONEY SENSE 


303 


a private account-book, and had put her I O U 
for safe keeping between the leaves of the same 
little volume; and then, some nine or ten months 
after the loan was made, Ralph Darnley had the 
want of consideration to die suddenly, and his 
executor, who found far less money than the 
family had expected, naturally came down upon 
Angelique for the payment of the money, with 
the proper interest accruing thereto. Unfortu- 
nately, his letter fell into Sir John’s hands. This 
really happened by an accident, but Sir John’s 
fury knew no bounds. 

‘ I insist upon knowing what you are doing 
with all this money!’ he stormed. ‘ Since we 
have been married, thousands and thousands of 
pounds have passed through your hands. What 
have you done with them ?’ 

‘ I don’t know, ’ said Angelique sullenly. ‘They 
have gone. ’ 

‘ I believe Ralph Darnley was not the only one. 
Come, you had better tell me all about it.’ 

‘ Well,’ said Angelique, ‘ I was awfully pressed 
that week you were in Scotland when you were 
painting Lord Danebro’s portrait. I could not 
bother you for it then, and I was — I was despe- 
rate, and I did go to Ralph Darnley — and — that’s 
all.’ 

‘And to whom else have you gone?’ 


304 


THE MONEY SENSE 


Angelique remained silent. 

‘ There have been others, ’ he shouted. ‘I know 
there have been others ! And you are running up 
fresh accounts here, there, and everywhere — I 
know it — I have got proof of it. But, mark my 
words — / will put a stop to it P 

He stayed to parley no further, but went out 
of the room, crashing the door after him with a 
violence which seemed to shake the very house. 
Angelique sat still at the table. She felt, by that 
curious certainty with which one recognises the 
great moments of life, that the great crisis had 
come between them. What was he going to do ? 
His last words were that he would put a stop to it. 
How would he do it ? Surely, he would do nothing 
to openly disgrace her. He had no grounds for 
seeking a divorce, else she knew that she would 
have to look in vain for mercy from him. 

She sat there until a servant came to clear the 
breakfast-table, then she wandered about the 
great house wondering — always wondering— what 
was going to happen, what new calamity was 
about to fall upon her ? 

Sir J ohn did not return. Luncheon was served, 
but Angelique ate nothing. ‘ Give me a liqueur 
brandy,’ she said. ‘Yes, put the decanter there. 
Don’t wait — I will help myself.’ 

She helped herself to nothing excepting to 


the contents of that innocent-looking flagon of 
crystal. 

‘ I will see no one,’ she said, when the pretence 
of a meal was over. 

‘ Very well, my lady.’ 

‘ You understand, Johnson, nobody at all — not 
even Mrs. Lennox. I may be going out pres- 
ently.’ 

‘ Very good, my lady.’ 

But Angelique did not go out. She felt, if a 
blow was going to fall upon her, that it would be 
best for it to fall there under the shelter of her 
own roof. 

So the day wore on. Sir John was still absent. 
Dinner was duly served, but Angelique scarcely 
touched it. 

‘Shall I keep dinner hot for Sir John?’ the 
butler inquired. 

‘ I think not. I think he would have come in 
if he had been returning. Something can be 
cooked for him if he does come later. ’ 

‘ Will you see the evening papers, my lady?’ 

‘ Yes — thank you.’ 

She had taken some grapes, not because she 
wanted them, but solely in order that the servant 
might ask her no more questions as to what she 
would have. She took up the paper which lay 
on the top of those which Johnson had laid down 


3o6 the money sense 

beside her, and turned with a feeling of relief to 
the distraction of its contents. But the first 
paragraph which caught her eye was one con- 
taining her own name. It was not, strictly 
speaking, a paragraph ; it was an announcement 
— an announcement signed ‘John Berkeley,’ and 
telling the whole world that he would no longer 
be responsible for his wife’s debts. 

So the blow had fallen. She sat there staring 
at the cruel words with wide-open blinded eyes 
which saw nothing. Through her distraught 
brain there ran a thousand fierce and wretched 
thoughts. What would. they say at home? What 
would they say in the world? What would 
become of her ? How would she live ? Should 
she remain ? What should she do ? Would he 
turn her out of the house, or would he expect 
her to go on living with him as if nothing had 
happened ? 

There was always that little phial in her 
dressing-case, with its clear, seductive contents, 
such as would give her freedom from all her 
troubles for ever. But no — she could not take 
that way — she had broken her nerve with brandy. 
She sat quite still in her place — thinking, think- 
ing of the hopeless ruin and shipwreck that had 
come into her life, thinking of this hard and cruel 
old man who had dragged her down from the 


THE MONEY SENSE 


307 


honourable estate of wifehood, had dragged her 
down to be the basest of the base — a creature — a 
panderer — a moral and mental drunkard — ere he 
had turned the limelight of the world upon her, 
to her everlasting shame and degradation. Then 
her thoughts went back to that other one, back 
to the little husband who had reeked of the city, 
who had gone after other gods, who had struck 
her in the face before her own servant. Then 
back to that other one who had taken all her 
fresh young heart’s love and cast it in the dust 
without a regret — back to the mother who had 
made her sick unto death and weary of her 
natural home, of the haven to which she could 
no longer fly for shelter — for she had practically 
burnt her boats behind her. So this was what she 
had done with her life, this was the outcome of 
trying to do without love, this was the outcome 
of marrying for a home, this was the outcome of 
setting the experience of the whole world at 
deflance. Gwyn had been perfectly right, Gwyn 
had been so wise — so far-seeing. And this was 
the end of it all ! The end of her girlish ambi- 
tions, the end of her brilliant marriage, and she 
was left like a rudderless ship on a hostile sea to 
drift — God alone knew whither. 

The room in which she sat was one of the most 
artistic and beautiful in London. In spite of her 


3o8 the money sense 

trouble, from tbe mere force of habit, she had 
changed her day-gown for a rich silken robe such 
as she always wore when they were dining alone. 
She was still a beautiful woman of gracious pre- 
sence, even as she sat there numbed and crushed 
by this last degradation of all that had fallen 
upon her. And through her distraught brain 
there rang one awful note — this was the end of 
all her ambitions — this was the end of her passion 
for the limelight. 

She turned her wide-open eyes from the silver 
centrepiece, with its dainty deckings of flowers, 
and she stretched out a shaking hand towards 
the crystal flagon which the servant had left 
beside her. She was too great a coward to go for 
that colourless liquid upstairs and to face the 
colourless unknown blank that would lie beyond 
it. Instead, she stretched out her hand for that 
deadlier foe which would stupefy her senses only 
for a little time, bringing its own retribution 
with it. 

I have no more to say. The story of Angelique 
is not a far-fetched one; alas, it is not an un- 
common one; but it is the story which may be 
true of the life of any woman who marries from 
other than the one motive which has been found 
to make marriage an honourable and a bearable 
estate since such bonds became a civilised insti- 


THE MONEY SENSE 


309 


tution. A comfortable home — what is it? A 
silken cushion — a flounce of lace — an indigestible 
dish! A marriage of ambition — well, what does 
that ambition bring ? Too often, too often the 
bitter realisation of a truth that was written 
more than three hundred years ago by the wise 
man of Avon — 

‘ O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings usi' 











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